10 Ways Councils Are Using AI to Transform Public Services
Councils are increasingly adopting AI-based solutions to improve services. LocalGov Assistant editor Izzy Lepone has collected 10 innovative case studies.
Reforms could push council into ‘S114 territory’, leader warns
28/07/2025 Leader of Surrey County Council has expressed concerns about the Fair Funding reforms and the financial challenges they pose. |
Councils facing ‘skyrocketing’ service costs, says report
23/07/2025 Councils are expected to spend an estimated £139bn on the delivery of public services this year, says a report. |
Yusuf rules out council tax cuts at Reform-led local authorities
21/07/2025 The head of Reform UK’s Doge unit Zia Yusuf has said local authorities the party controls will not be able to reduce council tax, contradicting earlier claims of potential cuts by its local leaders. |
Council warns Government plan would force £95m savings
26/06/2025 Croydon LBC would have to deliver the ‘highest level of service cuts made by one council in one year in the country’ under Government plans, the council has claimed. |
Council tax arrears hit £8.3bn
26/06/2025 The total amount of council tax arrears owed by households across Britain has nearly reached £8.3bn, an analysis of Government figures has revealed. |
Scrap council tax for terminally ill people, charity says
24/06/2025 An end-of-life charity has called on councils across England to scrap council tax for people living with a terminal illness. |
Consultation on council tax debt collection launched
20/06/2025 The Government has launched a consultation on proposals aimed at overhauling council tax debt collection practices. |
Spending Review: Council leaders warn of tax rises and cuts
12/06/2025 Local authorities will be forced to increase council tax and make further cuts despite ‘positive’ funding commitments in Spending Review, council chiefs say. |
OECD calls for council tax overhaul
04/06/2025 The Government should reform outdated council tax bands to improve the UK’s public finances, says influential multilateral organization. |
One in 6 relaxed about council tax fraud
29/04/2025 One in 6 adults have admitted to either falsely claiming the Single Person Discount (SPD) or knowing someone who had in the past year, new research 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. |
McMahon: Government will look at council tax reform options
21/03/2025 Minister Jim McMahon has promised the Government will look at council tax reform options. |
Council tax hikes to hit North East harder than London
19/03/2025 Households living in the North East will be hit with higher council tax bills than those living in the Greater London area, new research has revealed. |
Nine in 10 councils to hike council tax to maximum
17/03/2025 The vast majority of councils in England will be increasing council tax by the maximum for the third year in a row, research reveals. |
Council bailouts could ‘create longer-term risk’, warns NAO
27/02/2025 The spending watchdog has called for a ‘whole-system’ approach to fixing local government finance and warned that bailouts could ‘create longer-term risk.’ |
Councillor quits after tax arrears revealed
24/02/2025 A Lancashire councillor has resigned after it was revealed he owed almost £4,000 in council tax. |
Investigations into Godstone sinkhole delayed
24/02/2025 Authorities have delayed investigations into the cause of a huge sinkhole in a Surrey village, citing safety concerns. |
Councillor barred from budget vote over unpaid tax
20/02/2025 A borough councillor in Lancashire owes almost £4,000 in council tax, making him unable to vote on the authority’s budget. |
East Lothian first in Scotland to confirm 10% council tax hike
19/02/2025 East Lothian Council is the first local authority in Scotland to confirm a double-digit council tax increase. |
‘Regressive’ council tax is a growing burden on poorest, report says
17/02/2025 The average council tax bill rose by 77% in real terms between 1994 and 2020, analysis has found. |
Scottish Government to consult on council tax reform
11/02/2025 The Scottish Government has announced plans to review the devolved nation’s council tax system to make it ‘fairer’. |
One in 10 councils considering bin collection cuts
05/02/2025 Forty-two local authorities – or one in 10 – are considering cuts to waste collection services, new data reveals. |
LGA: Council tax increases no substitute for fixing funding
04/02/2025 Council leaders have warned council tax increases place ‘more financial burden on households’ without fixing the long-term pressures facing local government. |
Tax hikes agreed for just six councils
03/02/2025 Councils facing financial woes have been told to scale back council tax rises, just weeks before they put their new budgets in place. |
Majority of county councils to hike up council tax
31/01/2025 Nine in ten county councils will have to raise council tax by the maximum permitted, the County Council Network (CCN) has warned. |
Hollywood star loses two-year legal bid to avoid council tax
28/01/2025 American actor Mercer Boffey has lost a legal challenge to avoid paying council tax on his grade II listed property in Richmond. |
Local authorities ask permission to raise council tax above referendum threshold
20/01/2025 More councils have pleaded with ministers to increase their council tax above the 5% referendum limit without holding a poll, it has emerged. |
Cheshire East asks to raise council tax by 9.99%
15/01/2025 Cash-strapped Cheshire East has asked the Government for permission to increase council tax by 9.99% for the 2025-26 financial year. |
Sector call for council tax review
13/12/2024 Local government has called for a ‘fundamental review of council tax' in a long-awaited report. |
Windsor and Maidenhead wants 25% council tax increase amid section 114 warning
11/12/2024 Cash-strapped Windsor & Maidenhead BC has warned a section 114 notice is ‘almost inevitable' if it is blocked from raising council tax by a quarter. |
Council proposes 15% council tax hike
04/12/2024 North Somerset Council has proposed a 15% rise in council tax and has asked residents if they would donate £1,000. |
Call for ‘courage’ to fix council finances
21/11/2024 A think-tank has urged the Government to show ‘political courage’ in reforming the local government finance system in next spring’s comprehensive spending review. |
Council apologises after council tax debt confusion
19/11/2024 Buckinghamshire Council has issued an apology after a man was threatened by bailiffs over unpaid council tax. |
Suffolk talks devo with minister
19/11/2024 Suffolk CC's leader has said he remains committed to devolution in the county ‘streamlining local government' following a meeting with minister Jim McMahon. |
Council tax cap to remain at 5%
14/11/2024 Council tax increases will be kept at the 5% cap next year, Labour have confirmed. |
Council facing bankruptcy calls for ‘fairer’ funding
08/11/2024 North Somerset Council, which has warned it is at risk of serving a Section 114 notice, has launched a campaign calling for a ‘fairer’ funding deal. |
LGA: Care leavers should get council tax exemption
04/11/2024 Care leavers should be exempt from paying council tax to help give them financial stability when they leave care, local authority leaders have said. |
Authorities propose council tax rises on second and empty homes
29/10/2024 Two district councils have announced proposals to increase council tax on second and empty homes. |
Council tax reform could hit thousands of households
03/10/2024 An estimated 13,500 households could be worse off under Leicester City Council’s plans to reform council tax support. |
Brum misses out on £165m in council tax
02/10/2024 Birmingham City Council has missed out on over £165m worth of council tax in five years, new research reveals. |
Norfolk faces £45m budget gap
01/10/2024 Norfolk County Council is planning millions of pounds of cuts it does ‘not want to make’ in the face of a £44.75m deficit in its budget for next year. |
Martin Lewis: Councils collect unpaid tax like ‘worst loan sharks’
10/09/2024 Consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has criticised the ‘grotesque’ methods authorities use to recover council tax and urged the Government to change the law on debt collection. |
Waverley to consult on ‘voluntary council tax’
30/08/2024 Waverley Borough Council is set to consider asking some residents to pay a ‘voluntary council tax’ to fund discretionary services. |
Dorset councils owed £45m in council tax
27/08/2024 Dorset's two main councils are owed more than £45m in council tax arrears from the last three years, a new study has revealed. |
Abolish grant support for five local authorities to raise £600m, think-tank suggests
19/08/2024 The Government should ‘reduce or eliminate all support' for a number of local authorities where council tax is low, a centre-right think-tank report has suggested. |
Cheshire East sets out plan to tackle £100m deficit
16/08/2024 Plans to address a £100m budget gap over four years will be considered by Cheshire East councillors next week. |
Flood management funding ‘not working’
15/08/2024 The Government’s failure to devise a fair funding system for flood defences means wider service cuts for at-risk communities, council bosses have warned. |
Councillors advised to write off £1.25m of debts
06/08/2024 Officers have recommended that Peterborough City Council writes off £1.25m of ‘irrecoverable’ debts. |
Unpaid council tax surges to £6bn
06/08/2024 Council tax arrears have soared to £6bn a year, a sign that the collection process is ‘failing local authorities and taxpayers alike’, according to a report published today. |
Government urged to devolve council tax powers
31/07/2024 The Government should devolve the power to fix council tax rates to local authorities, a think-tank has urged. |
Will increasing council tax on second homes help?
30/07/2024 John Webber, head of Business Rates, Colliers, discusses why he thinks taxing second homeowners more won’t alleviate the shortfall in local authority finance. |
Council tax hikes on second homes backfiring
25/07/2024 Councils in the south west of England that have increased council tax on second homes are missing out on £55m of income due to the business rates system. |
Welsh Government drops controversial council tax notice plan
10/07/2024 The Welsh Government has dropped its controversial plan to end the legal requirement to publish council tax notices in local newspapers. |
Scrap council tax referendum limits, says DCN
03/07/2024 District councils should have the powers to increase council tax referendum limits to at least 10% as a first step to scrapping them, DCN says. |
Poll reveals support for tax increases to boost public services
01/07/2024 More than half of UK households support investment in public services even if it means they are taxed more, according to new analysis. |
Greens to push for council tax revaluation
14/06/2024 Elected Greens will push for a re-evaluation of council tax bands to ‘reflect big changes in value’ since the 1990s, the party has pledged in its manifesto. |
Welsh editors in warning over council tax notice law
11/06/2024 Editors in Wales have issued a warning over the Welsh Government’s plans to stop council tax notices being published in local newspapers. |
Hunt rules out ‘expensive’ council tax revaluation
06/06/2024 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pledged that if elected a Conservative government would not undertake a council tax revaluation. |
Wales pushes back council tax reform
15/05/2024 Council tax reforms will not come into force until 2028, the Welsh Government has announced. |
Scottish councils face £585m funding gap
14/05/2024 Council leaders across Scotland have called on Holyrood to find a ‘meaningful solution’ to the half a billion pound shortfall faced by local government. |
Rutland residents face highest council tax bills
09/05/2024 Households in Rutland, Nottingham and Dorset are facing the highest council tax bills in England this year, according to a new analysis. |
£23bn in benefits goes unclaimed
19/04/2024 The total amount of unclaimed benefits in the UK is now £22.7 billion a year, analysis has found. |
Councils refer 600,000 people to bailiffs
17/04/2024 Local authorities referred almost 600,000 people to bailiffs last year due to failure to pay council tax, according to a freedom of information request. |
Scottish councils’ debt is one-and-a-half times funding
08/04/2024 The debt of councils in Scotland is more than one-and-a-half times the latest local government funding settlement, the Scottish Conservatives have found. |
Parish and town council spending nearly hits £800m
02/04/2024 Parish and town council spending is set to rise from £708m in 2023/24 to £783m in 2024-25. |
Ministers stand firm on tax bands
26/03/2024 MPs told there are ‘no plans’ to revalue council tax bands due to the cost and disproportionate impact on lower-income households and pensioners. |
Scottish councils in tax U-turn
25/03/2024 Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde councils had both voted to raise tax in defiance of the Scottish Government's efforts to secure a nationwide freeze. |
Council tax rises leading to ‘levelling down’
22/03/2024 Households in the Northeast are set to pay £420 more for an average band D property in council tax than those in Greater London. |
Welsh council tax rises finalised
13/03/2024 The average council tax rise for Welsh local authorities will be just over 8% next year. |
Limited exemptions for empty homes powers
11/03/2024 Councils will face only a limited number of exemptions from new powers allowing them to levy higher taxes on empty homes, ministers have confirmed. |
Woking BC approves 10% council tax hike
06/03/2024 Woking BC councillors have approved a nearly 10% council tax hike authorised by the Government after the council's issuing of a Section 114 notice. |
Council funding crisis ‘existential’
01/03/2024 Local government’s funding crisis threatens to derail ambitions to level up the north of England, it has been claimed. |
Scottish Budget 'not good' for communities
28/02/2024 Next year’s Scottish Budget is ‘not good’ for communities, council leaders have said. |
Council rejects tax freeze offer
23/02/2024 Argyll and Bute Council has become the first to reject the Scottish Government’s council tax freeze. |
Brum set to sell off £750m of assets
20/02/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council is set to sell off £750m of assets and cut spending on services by £300m in an effort to balance the books. |
Almost all areas set for maximum council tax rise
20/02/2024 Virtually every local authority with responsibility for social care in England plans on raising its council tax by the maximum 4.99% this April, according to new analysis. |
Council tax total set to exceed £57bn
19/02/2024 The total amount raised from council tax is now expected to exceed £57.4bn by 2028, more than double the 2009 figure of £25.3bn, new analysis reveals. |
Norfolk council to double council tax on second homes
12/02/2024 Second-home owners in north Norfolk will see their council tax double from next year. |
Northern households pay £250 more council tax
12/02/2024 Households in the North are paying on average £250 a year more than they should for council tax due to ' outdated council tax bands’, campaigners say. |
Wales could drive agenda on council tax, report argues
12/02/2024 Wales could have a chance to deal with unfairness in the council tax system and drive the agenda for other nations and regions to follow, says think-tank. |
Thurrock braced for 8% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Thurrock residents could soon be hit with an 8% increase in council tax as the local authority attempts to close its budget gap. |
Pembrokeshire council proposes record 21% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Pembrokeshire County Council has proposed the highest ever percentage increase in council tax in Wales. |
Brum granted permission to raise council tax by 10%
07/02/2024 Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has approved Birmingham City Council’s request to increase council tax by up to 10% without a local referendum. |
Gove sheds light on productivity plans
05/02/2024 Michael Gove has released further details of the Government's productivity plans, including a clampdown on consultants and diversity schemes. |
Council financial crisis ‘out of control’
31/01/2024 MPs have issued a stark warning on the ‘very real’ prospect of more councils in England ‘effectively going bust’ if the Government does not address a £4bn funding gap. |
Council leaders demand right to set tax levels
26/01/2024 Local authority leaders in Scotland have renewed their fight to set their own council taxes – despite the pledge of a freeze by first minister Humza Yousaf. |
Call for council tax overhaul
26/01/2024 Work should begin now on the ‘long-overdue’ revaluation of all domestic properties in England to bolster local government finance, a think-tank has argued. |
Argyll and Bute considers 10% council tax hike
25/01/2024 Argyll and Bute Council are considering a council tax rise of 10% in order to tackle ‘enormous budget challenges’. |
Council referrals to bailiffs up 20%
24/01/2024 Referrals to bailiffs in England and Wales to recover council debts have risen by nearly 20%, a BBC investigation has found. |
Conservative MPs call for emergency funding for councils
22/01/2024 MPs representing county areas have called on the Government to provide emergency funding to cash-strapped councils to prevent further cuts to local services. |
Oxfordshire CC budget proposals ‘£900,000 short’
19/01/2024 Oxfordshire County Council has published proposals to save over £9.8m but is still £900,000 short of what is required for a balanced budget. |
Thurrock avoids 10% council tax hike
12/01/2024 Cash-strapped Thurrock Council has pledged residents will not face a 10% council tax rise – but still needs to confirm how much extra they must pay. |
Somerset in capitalisation request amid ‘financial emergency’
10/01/2024 Somerset Council is to seek a capitalisation direction and permission to raise council tax by up to 10% as it attempts to stave off a section 114 notice. |
Birmingham faces 10% council tax hike
10/01/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council could raise council tax by 10% if the Government gives its finance plan the go-ahead. |
Somerset Council warns of ‘heart-breaking’ cuts
08/01/2024 Public toilets, theatres, and leisure services in Somerset are set to be hit by cuts as the unitary authority attempts to bridge a £100m budget gap. |
Welsh minister backs tax reforms
03/01/2024 One of the candidates to become first minister of Wales has backed reform of council tax. |
Council tax freeze to cost £156m
02/01/2024 Scottish councils face a real terms cut of up to £156m next year as a result of the council tax freeze, new research has found. |
Scottish councils get £14bn boost
19/12/2023 Local government in Scotland is set to benefit from a £14bn boost but council tax will be frozen despite criticisms of the plan by local authority leaders. |
Tax referendum cap lifted for three councils
19/12/2023 A number of councils are set to raise council tax by up to 10% next year without holding referendums. |
Council tax freeze costs Scottish Government £300m
15/12/2023 Fully funding local authorities for Scotland’s council tax freeze contributes significantly to the £1.5bn shortfall facing Holyrood, experts have warned. |
