Funding boost for garden towns and villages
14/01/2020 The Government has allocated £6m to deliver up to 200,000 new homes in new locally-led garden towns and villages. |
County motorists 'poor relation' to major cities
13/01/2020 Shire county authorities are failing to receive a ‘fair share’ of funding for roads with London receiving three times higher investment, new analysis has found today. |
Former SSI steelworks secures £71m funding boost
10/01/2020 The Government has confirmed an extra £71m will be spent to get the former SSI steelworks in Redcar ready for redevelopment. |
Councils paying for more than 4,000 public funerals a year
08/01/2020 Councils are spending more than £6m a year on paying for public funerals, according to new research. |
Javid pledges ‘decade of renewal’ in next Budget
07/01/2020 The chancellor has pledged to use his first Budget to ‘unleash’ Britain’s potential and usher in a ‘decade of renewal’. |
Scottish council chiefs warn budgets at ‘breaking point’
06/01/2020 Local authority leaders in Scotland have today warned Holyrood that council budgets are at ‘breaking point’. |
Troubled Families scheme gets £165m funding boost
06/01/2020 The Government has confirmed up to £165m extra funding to support the Troubled Families programme. |
Whitehall promises £85m ‘culture boost’ after decade of school cuts
03/01/2020 The Government has committed to investing millions of pounds into film, dance, theatre and design lessons and facilities for secondary school children. |
Council chiefs welcome £4m ‘rogue landlord’ fund
03/01/2020 Local authorities have welcomed a funding commitment by the Government aimed at cracking down on criminal landlords and letting agents. |
Home secretary announces £35m to focus on ‘root causes’ of crime
02/01/2020 Eighteen police and crime commissioners will receive £35m to fund specialist teams to tackle violent crime in their area, the home secretary has announced. |
PM pledges £260m to ‘eliminate’ homelessness
24/12/2019 The Prime Minister has pledged £260m to help local authorities prevent homelessness and rough sleeping. |
Jenrick hails 'biggest multi-billion pound spending increase in a decade'
20/12/2019 Local government secretary Robert Jenrick has confirmed what he describes as the ‘biggest multi-billion pound spending increase for councils in a decade’. |
Government announces £14bn funding boost for schools
20/12/2019 The Government has announced that every school is set to receive £5,000 per pupil in funding for secondary schools next year after a decade of austerity. |
Welsh government commits £74m to ‘green transport network’
19/12/2019 The Welsh government has committed to investing £74m into initiatives aimed at building a ‘clean, green transport network’. |
Nearly one third of maintained schools ‘in the red’
19/12/2019 A think tank has warned that the Government’s plans to ‘level up’ school funding will not close the gap between struggling schools and those in the black. |
County leaders call for an end to ‘city centric policy obsession’
18/12/2019 Councils have urged the new Government to focus less on cities and to invest more in towns and deprived communities to help level up ‘left-behind’ areas. |
Whitehall silence as Gwynne calls for provisional settlement
17/12/2019 Shadow local government secretary Andrew Gwynne has called on ministers to publish the provisional finance settlement immediately amid silence on its timing from Whitehall. |
Oxford CC publishes £19m climate emergency budget
17/12/2019 Oxford City Council has outlined a £19m climate emergency budget to help the authority become a zero carbon council in 2020. |
Campaigners call for more support for council-owned farms
16/12/2019 Campaigners have called on the new Government to stop the sale of council-owned county farms and to ‘give them a new purpose’. |
CIPFA resilience index shows just 10% of councils are at financial risk
15/12/2019 The ‘majority of councils’ are not showing signs of major financial stress, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has claimed. |
NHS business rates claim rejected by High Court
12/12/2019 Councils have successfully defended a claim for billions of pounds of tax relief for NHS trusts. |
Council loses court battle over £1m fatal bin lorry crash damages
11/12/2019 Glasgow City Council has failed in its bid to reclaim the £1m in damages it was forced to pay to the families of those who lost their lives in a bin lorry crash. |
Research reveals 'shocking' cuts to local services
10/12/2019 Hundreds of youth centres, libraries and public toilets have been closed due to council funding cuts, a trade union has warned. |
Decade of austerity sees dramatic drop in library spending
06/12/2019 Ten years of cuts to public services has seen a nearly 30% drop in library spending, new research has revealed. |
Number of children in care nearly hits 80,000
06/12/2019 A charity has called on the next Government to invest more in the care system as new figures reveal the number of children in care has risen to nearly 80,000. |
Councils could lose millions in utilities repayments after court ruling
04/12/2019 Local authorities could be facing repayments worth millions of pounds to council tenants in excess water charges, after a High Court ruling last week. |
City council property company welcomes £195m investment
02/12/2019 Glasgow City Council has announced it will be using a multi-million pound investment in its property company to help fund its equal pay settlement. |
Herefordshire councils reimbursed for flooding costs
02/12/2019 Local authority areas in Herefordshire are to be reimbursed for costs incurred as a result of flooding. |
Voters face 'stark choice' on public spending - IFS
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. |
New grants to support Housing First services
27/11/2019 Five housing providers have been awarded £450,000 to help support people facing chronic homelessness and multiple disadvantages. |
TUC calls for large-scale investment in local services
25/11/2019 New analysis shows that councils in the North West are spending £1.4bn a year less on key local services than in 2010. |
Labour pledges to restore council spending to 2010 levels
21/11/2019 Council spending powers will be restored to 2010 levels over the next five years, if Labour wins the General Election. |
Councils call for more investment in early intervention
21/11/2019 Council leaders are calling for extra funding in children’s services to ensure they can fulfil the ambitions of the Children’s Act. |
Shropshire Council warns of £6m overspend
20/11/2019 Shropshire Council has announced a spending freeze until the end of the year after warning that it faced a multi-million pound overspend. |
Councils detecting more cases of fraud
19/11/2019 Councils prevented 22% more cases of council tax fraud this year compared to 2017/18, new figures have revealed. |
Councils make £930m profit from parking
18/11/2019 Councils in England made a profit of £930m last year from their parking operations, new figures have revealed. |
Johnson pledges business rates cut to disadvantaged areas
15/11/2019 The prime minister has pledged to help ‘left behind’ communities by cutting business rates if they win the General Election. |
Caerphilly council agrees 7% council tax hike
14/11/2019 A county council in Wales has agreed a package of savings proposals which include a council tax increase of nearly 7%. |
Council offers £10,000 package to attract foreign companies
14/11/2019 Torbay Council in Devon is offering foreign-owned companies up to £10,000 to relocate all or part of their operations to the region. |
Councils in flood-hit areas to receive £500 per affected house
13/11/2019 Local authorities in areas that have experienced flooding will be given £500 for each affected house to help with recovery efforts under the recovery scheme. |
Reform ‘broken’ business rates system, retailers say
12/11/2019 Retailers are urging the next Government to reform the business rates system, which they argue penalises the retail sector by over £1bn every five years. |
Emergency Bellwin scheme activated in response to flooding
11/11/2019 Councils will be able to apply to be reimbursed for costs incurred as part of their response to the heavy rainfall that has hit the regions in recent days. |
Councils need billions more in funding, research finds
10/11/2019 Councils will need billions of extra pounds worth of funding in the next parliament, if they are to meet the rising cost of adult social care, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has calculated. |
Council chiefs call for more cash to fight fly-tipping
08/11/2019 Local authority leaders have urged the next Government to ensure that councils have the necessary funds to tackle fly-tipping. |
Charities use Tampon Tax to fund homelessness services
07/11/2019 Charities for homeless women have been awarded grants totalling £1.85m funded by money collected from VAT on the sale of sanitary products. |
Public spending still lower than pre-recession, says IFS
07/11/2019 Planned hikes in public spending would still leave spending in 2020-21 3% lower than it was in 2010-11, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. |
Watchdog finds unlawful spending at two councils
06/11/2019 Two councils in Wales have incurred over £290,000 of 'unlawful' expenditure, the Auditor General for Wales has warned. |
Business rates reforms will only help richest authorities, report finds
06/11/2019 Two-thirds of councils will see their income fall in real terms by 2025 due business rates reforms, research has found today. |
Cost of alternative polling stations to be funded by Whitehall
06/11/2019 Councils will be reimbursed for the cost of finding alternative polling stations in the upcoming General Election. |
Councils welcome increase in funeral expenses payments
06/11/2019 Councils leaders hope the increase in funeral expenses payments will help lower the number of public health funerals. |
This issue of Public Property examines how public sector organisations can unlock the hidden value in their land, and why a new approach to construction could help boost the outcomes of the Government’s One Public Estate programme.
The December issue also considers why learnings from ancient cities could provide the key to promoting wellbeing in the modern built environment. It also contains a case study on how the London Borough of Westminster has provided high quality care for the elderly alongside a block of luxury apartments.
Funding doubles for residential charge points
Village halls secure refurbishment funding
Court finds in favour of museum in ‘landmark’ business rates case
Councils losing £250m a year through business rates avoidance
