Council considers application for £8m coastal monitoring programme funding
Call for ‘lifeline’ to help households in cost-of-living crisis
Welsh councils receive £50m capital funding boost
Wales Auditor General raises alarm over council account delays
Local government spends £3.4bn with 39 ‘strategic suppliers’
Public procurement experts Tussell find that local government spending with the Government’s ‘strategic suppliers’ has remained flat for five years.
Council cuts raise concerns over arts access
23/03/2026 A new report has warned that significant reductions in local authority arts funding across the UK could limit public access to cultural activities. |
Pride in Place: £319m announced for high street regeneration
23/03/2026 The Government has announced a £319m package aimed at regenerating high streets and improving community spaces, as part of its Pride in Place strategy. |
LGA: Housing finances improving, but budget pressures threaten housebuilding
19/03/2026 The overall financial outlook for social housing is improving, but significant challenges remain, a Local Government Association (LGA) survey reveals. |
Higher council spending linked to stronger climate action, report finds
18/03/2026 New research from Climate Emergency UK has found that councils with greater spending power are more effective at delivering climate action. |
Croydon pledge after SEND overspend
17/03/2026 Croydon LBC has pledged to tackle a raft of problems highlighted in a review into its £16.7m overspend on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). |
Car park operator collapses putting nearly 700 jobs at risk
17/03/2026 National Car Parks (NCP), one of the UK’s largest parking operators, has entered administration following financial pressures, putting 682 jobs at risk. |
Call for integrating council tax support into universal credit
10/03/2026 Council tax support for working-age households could be integrated into Universal Credit to simplify the system and incentivise work, says think tank. |
Report highlights £5.3bn in unspent developer funds held by councils
10/03/2026 MPs are set to be alerted to £5.3bn in unspent developer contributions currently held in local authority bank accounts, says Urban Mobility Partnership. |
Council agrees £3k+ spend on new mayoral chains
10/03/2026 Harrogate Town Council is to spend over £3,500 on a new set of mayoral chains. |
Havering urges Government to scrap loan interest
05/03/2026 Havering LBC is lobbying the Government to scrap the interest payments on its loans. |
Alarm sounded over Shetland Islands Council's £134m budget black hole
04/03/2026 Shetland Islands Council faces urgent pressure to address a projected £134.3m budget gap by 2029/30, auditors have warned. |
Council spends £220k sending council tax bills first class
04/03/2026 Somerset Council has spent an extra £220k sending out council tax bills by first class post after the Government delayed confirming the financial settlement. |
Councils face £4bn temporary accommodation black hole, LGA warns
04/03/2026 The gap between what councils pay for temporary accommodation and what the Government reimburses them could balloon to nearly £4bn by 2029/30, LGA warns. |
Spring Statement: OBR paints gloomy picture of council finances
03/03/2026 The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has painted a gloomy picture for the future of local government finances. |
£150,000 boost for public libraries in National Year of Reading
03/03/2026 The Government has announced a funding boost of up to £150,000 to support public libraries as part of the National Year of Reading 2026. |
Councils face ‘capacity crisis’ of unspent developer funds
02/03/2026 Roughly £9bn in unspent developer contributions is being held by councils, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) has found. |
Four in 10 of England’s councils to require bail outs
02/03/2026 Nearly 40% of English councils are likely or very likely to require exceptional financial support (EFS) within five years, according to the LGIU. |
Minister raises ‘significant concerns’ over Somerset Council finances
26/02/2026 Minister Alison McGovern has raised ‘significant concerns’ about Somerset Council’s financial position in a letter responding to its request for support. |
No agreement reached on Birmingham budget
26/02/2026 Members of Birmingham City Council have failed to reach agreement at the authority’s annual budget meeting. |
Exceptional Financial Support increases
24/02/2026 Some 37 local authorities will be issued with £1.9bn in exceptional financial support (EFS), allowing them to use capital funding to cover day-to-day costs. |
CIPFA warning over profit capping reforms
23/02/2026 Financial oversight and profit capping reforms to the children's residential care market may fail to reduce costs for local authorities, CIPFA has warned. |
Government unveils £4bn SEND package
23/02/2026 The Government has announced a £4bn investment to expand specialist support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). |
CCN: SEND transport costs could hit £3.4bn
18/02/2026 Councils have warned that the Government’s Schools White Paper must address spiralling special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) transport costs. |
Treasury control over transport is stalling regional growth, IPPR warns
18/02/2026 Centralised Treasury control over transport spending is constraining regional growth, according to new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research. |
Finance settlement raises ‘serious concerns’ for rural areas
17/02/2026 The body championing rural services warns the Government’s final local government finance settlement raises ‘serious concerns’ for rural communities. |
Call for sustainable funding to support SEND spending
12/02/2026 Council spending on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has surged by more than £5bn in real terms over six years. |
Scottish councils struggle to close budget gaps
10/02/2026 Councils in Scotland are struggling to balance their books following the announcement of the Budget. |
Councils' unaudited accounts remain 'a cautionary tale', NAO chief will say
10/02/2026 Backlogs of unaudited accounts mean English local government ‘remains a cautionary tale', the head of the public spending watchdog will say today. |
Compensation for business rates funding flaw
09/02/2026 Councils affected by controversial changes to funding will be compensated, ministers have announced. |
Reform UK budget defeated
09/02/2026 A budget proposing a 3.89% council tax increase by Warwickshire CC's minority Reform UK administration has been defeated by rival parties. |
Worcestershire CC issues bankruptcy warning
09/02/2026 Reform UK-run Worcestershire CC could be forced to declare effective bankruptcy if the Government does not provide it with extra support, leader warns. |
Scottish council leaders raise Local Growth Fund concerns
06/02/2026 Council leaders in Scotland have voiced strong concerns over the UK Government’s approach to the new Local Growth Fund. |
City council requests £15m exceptional financial support
06/02/2026 Brighton & Hove City Council has requested £15m of exceptional financial support (EFS) from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. |
Cross-party talks after Bedford budget rejected
05/02/2026 The leader of Bedford BC's Conservative minority administration has pledged to ‘keep working with other parties' after its ‘sound' budget was rejected. |
Birmingham City Council no longer ‘bankrupt’, says leader
04/02/2026 Birmingham City Council is no longer 'bankrupt', says the local authority’s leader. |
London schools face loosing £45m as pupil numbers plunge
03/02/2026 Falling pupil numbers in London risk undermining school standards and forcing cuts to staff and programmes, according to a new London Councils report. |
Scottish councils face £1bn budget gap
29/01/2026 The cost of delivering services in Scotland is rising faster than available funding which ‘risks the financial sustainability’ of councils, auditors warn. |
Auditor urges Welsh councils to improve capital plans
29/01/2026 It is not always clear how capital plans are helping councils in Wales to deliver their priorities, auditors have concluded. |
£30m coastal resilience funding announced
28/01/2026 Councils are set to benefit from a £30m Government package aimed at helping communities adapt to accelerating coastal erosion and climate impacts. |
Welsh Government funding boost for councils
23/01/2026 The Welsh Government has confirmed it will make £112.8m in additional funding available to local government in its final budget for 2026-27. |
County councils warn of service cuts and redundancies
23/01/2026 Millions of people in England’s county areas could see cuts to services as Government funding is set to cover just 2p of every £1 in rising costs, CCN warns. |
Trafford bid for £20m EFS
16/01/2026 Trafford Council is to ask Whitehall for more than £20m in exceptional financial support (EFS) after its deficit increased by £24m under the fair funding review. |
Business rates surge puts hundreds of pubs at risk
13/01/2026 Up to six hospitality venues could close each day in 2026 if no intervention is introduced to address upcoming business rates increases, researchers reveal. |
Districts remain in dark on funding
12/01/2026 Funding certainty lingers on for finance chiefs in district councils, despite the publication of the provisional local government finance settlement. |
MHCLG faces delays in resolving local audit crisis
12/01/2026 Resolving the crisis in local audit is taking longer than expected, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has admitted. |
'High probability' section 114 warning for Starmer
09/01/2026 North Somerset Council's leader has warned Prime Minister Keir Starmer there is a ‘high probability' of the authority issuing a section 114 notice this year. |
Scottish regions awarded £140m to drive local growth
08/01/2026 Five Scottish regions are to receive £140m of Government funding to support local growth initiatives. |
Reform-led Derbyshire council eyes 5% council tax hike
06/01/2026 Reform-led Derbyshire County Council is considering a council tax increase of up to 5% as it seeks to close a significant budget gap. |
Real-terms funding cuts for almost half of councils
18/12/2025 Almost half of councils will see funding fall in real terms under the local government finance settlement, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). |
Government announces funding boost for most deprived councils
18/12/2025 The Government has revealed details of its multi-year funding deal for local government that aims to shift funding to England’s most deprived areas. |
