10 ways councils are making budgets go further
Discover 10 ways councils are stretching budgets further, from digital transformation and energy efficiency to community partnerships and data-driven decision-making.
DCN: Deprivation key determinant for spending
21/10/2025 Unitaries with a population over 350,000 tend to spend more per resident on services but are also more likely to run into financial difficulties, DCN shows |
Council pension funds pile pressure on firms over climate
20/10/2025 Firms have been put under renewed pressure by the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) to allow shareholders a vote over their climate transition plans. |
Councils to call for tighter HMO controls
02/10/2025 Councils are expected to call for tighter controls over houses in multiple occupation (HMO) after a ‘rush' of applications for HMO licences. |
LGA: Councils need more than a decade to reach decent homes standard
24/09/2025 Councils should be given up to 12 years to bring social housing up to an enhanced decent homes standard (DHS) and even then the cost may mean they build fewer new homes, the Local Government Association (LGA) has told ministers. |
Dorset hopes to recover potential contract fraud losses
23/09/2025 A council that sacked 11 interim officers over the potential mismanagement of a multi-million pound repairs contract hopes to recover at least £1m. |
Reorganisation threat to district services
23/09/2025 Services provided by district councils must not become an early casualty of local government reorganisation, a new report has warned. |
ARCH plea to increase rent cap
01/09/2025 Councils should be able to raise tenants' rents by up to £3 per week on top of any inflation-linked increase, a local authority association has told ministers. |
Scottish care kids failing to attend school
27/08/2025 An increasing proportion of children in local authority care in Scotland are failing to attend school. |
Cuts have hit council financial information, report finds
22/08/2025 Councillors and members of the public are not being presented with accurate or easy to understand information about local authority budgets, report has found. |
Peers pass fire and hire exemption
23/07/2025 Councils with financial problems that are placed under government intervention may be exempt from a ban on sacking and then rehiring employees. |
Councils back three mainland unitaries
21/07/2025 Hampshire CC and East Hampshire DC have backed three unitary mainland councils, with the Isle of Wight remaining as a standalone authority. |
Councils fear riots repeat
16/07/2025 Councils fear a repeat of last summer's riots without ‘significant government investment in community cohesion', a report has found. |
Fears over lack of teeth behind mandatory reporting duty
14/07/2025 Government plans to make it a mandatory duty to report child sexual abuse need to be backed up with an effective deterrent, human rights committee has said. |
Ministers tell pension pools to merge
15/04/2025 Two local authority pension pools have reacted angrily after their plans to meet new standards were rejected by ministers. |
Reorganisation proposals average 544,000 population
14/04/2025 Reorganisation proposals submitted by councils would produce new unitaries of varying sizes but with an average population of 544,837, analysis reveals. |
Welsh council tax rise of 7.2%
14/04/2025 Local authorities in Wales are raising council tax by an average of 7.2% in 2025/26 - the second largest rise for more than 20 years. |
Providing sanctuary for refugees
10/12/2019 Neil Merrick finds out what councils across the country are doing to welcome and resettle Syrian refugees. |
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PWLB hike: A rise too far?
09/12/2019 What impact will the increase to the Public Works Loan Board rate have on councils’ housing and other capital schemes? Neil Merrick investigates. |
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Navigating the rules of purdah
25/11/2019 Neil Merrick voices his frustration over how different councils interpret purdah rules. |
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How accurate is the annual rough sleeping count?
21/10/2019 With some councils changing from estimating the number of homeless people on the streets to actually counting them, do recent figures genuinely reflect the success of the government's rough sleeping initiative? Neil Merrick investigates. |
