26/08/2020

UK local authorities are set to be hardest hit financially by the coronavirus among the five largest European economies says a report from Moody’s Investors Services.

21/08/2020

Public debt has bust the £2tn mark for the first time, up by £227.6bn over the same time last year as the lockdown wreaks havoc on the public finance figures.

18/08/2020

Councils face a budget black hole of £2bn this year due to unfunded coronavirus costs, a new study has found.

17/08/2020

Ministers have been accused of making Public Health England (PHE) a scapegoat by scrapping the body for alleged failures in the testing and tracing of coronavirus.

29/07/2020

MPs have delivered a blistering attack on the Government’s handling of social care during coronavirus.

23/07/2020

MPs have slated ministers for failing to give local government sufficient funding and urged them to ensure a 'clear and timely financial settlement’ in readiness for the next phase of the pandemic.

14/07/2020

Soaring costs for adult social care along with indebted local authorities struggling to balance their budgets post-virus are among the key risks to the Government's spending plans warns the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) today.

09/07/2020

Peer support for councils is going virtual to help them deal with recovery and renewal as they emerge from the coronavirus lockdown.

07/07/2020

Care chiefs have rejected claims by Boris Johnson that it was their lack of vigilance that led to a high number of coronavirus deaths in care homes.

03/07/2020

Ministers have been urged to create a Green Bank to fund climate change investment as part of the Government’s multi-billion pound infrastructure investment programme announced earlier this week.

09/06/2020

District councils have called on the Government to bail out cash-strapped leisure centres as they face permanent closure because of lack of income due to the coronavirus shutdown.

08/06/2020

Planning powers could be shifted from local authorities to development corporations as part of an economic stimulus package to be announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson later this month.

03/06/2020

Powers allowing community groups to take on local assets should be kick-started to build on the volunteer spirit generated by Covid says a report released today.

16/04/2020

Recent forecasts by the official spending watchdog of a swift return to normality for the economy and the public finances after the coronavirus lockdown have been downplayed by a new think-tank study.

06/04/2020

Former Lambeth LBC leader Steve Reed has become the new shadow communities and local government secretary replacing Andrew Gwynne.

26/03/2020

With technology moving into the next era of 5G and AI, The MJ and BT recently conducted a survey into the extent that local authorities are using shared services to develop their Smart Cities and Places. Michael Burton reports

04/03/2020

Government reforms of outsourcing to avoid another Carillion collapse must be extended to local government where commercial skills lag behind Whitehall, a report from the Institute for Government (IfG) think-tank has said.

29/11/2019

The choice could not be clearer on public spending plans by the main political parties according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

11/10/2019

A council pension scheme has become one of the first to invest in a new ‘green’ fund which supports low carbon technology.

17/09/2019

The Treasury is wasting money in its funding of local government and needs to have a more place-based focus, according to a report from the respected Institute for Government (IfG) think-tank.