Labour to force vote over council tax rise
New research to show value of heritage and culture
Nottingham plans £100m asset sale
Insurer compares the market for parking fines
How local authorities can make money from energy
Stephen Stead explains how councils can use their existing assets to generate new revenue streams.
Starmer demands halt to ‘absurd’ council tax rises
11/01/2021 Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for central government to increase funding for local authorities to prevent council tax hikes. |
Expansion of Dormant Assets Scheme to potentially raise £800m
11/01/2021 The Government has announced that dormant assets are set to be unlocked, with the potential for more than £800m to be made available to support the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. |
Councils asked to 'redouble efforts' on rough sleeping
08/01/2021 English councils have been asked to ‘redouble their efforts’ to help accommodate people sleeping rough, with the Government finding an additional £10m funding. |
Sadiq Khan proposes 9.5% council tax increase
08/01/2021 The mayor of London has announced council tax will increase by 9.5% to help fund free travel for young people and the over 60s. |
Council chiefs welcome £4.6bn in lockdown grants to support businesses
05/01/2021 Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England are to receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000 to support them during the lockdown, the chancellor has announced. |
Councils welcome announcement of third national lockdown
05/01/2021 Councils have urged residents to follow the guidelines for the third national lockdown in a bid to stop the continued spread of coronavirus. |
Charity warns of council tax debt ‘explosion’
04/01/2021 Thousands of people in Scotland have racked up £6.8m in council tax arrears, a charity has warned. |
Jenrick announces £830m high street investment
04/01/2021 The Government has announced that millions of pounds of funding will be invested in 72 areas across England as part of the effort to help high streets recover from the impact of the pandemic. |
Council chiefs call for funds to support businesses in Tier 4 areas
22/12/2020 Local authority leaders have urged the Government to meet all of the extra costs councils incur during the pandemic. |
Two-thirds of COVID-19 school costs not met by Government
22/12/2020 Council chiefs have called on the Government to ensure schools are able to pay the costs of the pandemic as report says current funding levels fall short. |
Councils’ core funding per resident set to drop below 2015-16 levels
21/12/2020 Local authorities’ core funding per resident will be lower next year than 2015-16 despite real-term council tax increases of 16%, financial experts calculate. |
Every local authority gets school funding boost
18/12/2020 The Government has announced a £2.2bn increase in core funding for schools next year in England. |
Jenrick confirms £1.55bn boost for local government
17/12/2020 Local government secretary Robert Jenrick today used the provisional finance settlement for 2021/22 to confirm the allocations for £1.55bn funding. |
Councils told to prepare for 'breathing space moratorium' on council tax debt
16/12/2020 Councils have been reminded that households struggling to pay their council tax bills will be able to pause payments from next May. |
Funding gap has 'devastating' impact on rural and remote bus services
10/12/2020 Rural and remote bus services saw journeys fall by 97 million last year due to a £348m funding gap, a new report has warned. |
Nottingham Council hits back at 'bankruptcy' claims
10/12/2020 Nottingham City Council has refuted claims that it is on the verge of bankruptcy. |
Minister announces £4.4m boost to support vulnerable families
08/12/2020 The Government has announced that more than £4m will be made available to extend COVID-19 response programmes supporting vulnerable families. |
Government announces nearly £4m tree planting pot
07/12/2020 The Government has announced £3.9m of funding to help plant hundreds of thousands of new trees across the country. |
Spending on libraries drops by £20m in past year
04/12/2020 The total spend on British libraries has fallen by nearly £20m in the past financial year, new figures have revealed. |
Croydon issues second Section 114 notice
02/12/2020 The council still faces a shortfall of £66m, 21 days after its first notice was issued. |
Apprenticeship levy is 'flawed' says London Councils
02/12/2020 ’Flaws’ in the apprenticeship levy are stopping councils from making use of the funds, London Councils has warned today. |
Tier 3 communities in North and Midlands ‘stretched to breaking point’
30/11/2020 Tier 3 communities in the North and Midlands will be ‘stretched to breaking point’ once the grant aimed at supporting local business is cut at the end of the national lockdown, according to Labour. |
COVID-19 school workforce fund launched
30/11/2020 The Government has announced a short-term COVID-19 workforce fund to help keep schools and colleges open during the pandemic. |
Funding boost for council tax support scheme in Wales
27/11/2020 Councils in Wales will receive an extra £2.6m to meet the increasing demand for Council Tax Reduction Schemes. |
Flood funding for councils may not be enough, watchdog finds
27/11/2020 The Government is unable to prove councils have enough funding for flood defences, a spending watchdog has discovered. |
Launch of £16.5m youth COVID-19 support fund
26/11/2020 The Government has unveiled a £16.5m youth COVID-19 support fund to help protect the future of grassroots and national organisations. |
Spending Review: 'Risk all sits on local government'
26/11/2020 The Spending Review failed to tackle key issues such as reforms to local government funding, sector experts have warned. |
Spending Review: Sunak recycles money for green transport
25/11/2020 The chancellor has used the Spending Review to confirm billions of pounds for public transport, low emission vehicles and active travel, including adding more detail to Boris Johnson’s recent ‘Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’. |
Sunak unveils a Spending Review for jobs, public services and infrastructure
25/11/2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled a £4bn levelling up fund as part of a Spending Review which he claimed offered ‘huge investment’ in jobs, public services and infrastructure. |
Spending Review: UKSPF to reach £1.5bn a year
25/11/2020 The value of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will reach around £1.5bn a year on average, chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced. |
Spending Review: Infrastructure gets pride of place
25/11/2020 The chancellor Rishi Sunak used to the 2020 Spending Review to launch a new strategy for UK infrastructure, supported by an infrastructure bank and a place-based 'levelling up' fund. |
Spending Review: £2.9bn 'restart programme to help unemployed'
25/11/2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a three-year £2.9bn ‘restart programme’ to help more than one million people unemployed for more than a year find work. |
Councils warn about 'significant' overspends on children’s services
24/11/2020 The number of vulnerable young people referred to councils’ children’s services increased by 15% in the first three months after the first lockdown, figures have shown. |
Croydon publishes financial renewal plans
24/11/2020 Croydon LBC has warned that it may have to stop some services and reduce the number of staff it employs in order to live ‘within its means’ over the next three years. |
Over half of councils face financial failure without spending review funding increase
23/11/2020 Half of English councils will be at risk of financial failure if the spending review just provides a ‘rollover’ of funding levels from this year for 2021/22, new analysis has warned today. |
Leisure centre collapse warning
20/11/2020 Under-pressure leisure centres will go under without further rescue funding on top of the £100m already pledged by the Government, district councils have warned. |
Local government 'must have parity' with NHS on pay
20/11/2020 The chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board says the hard work of the sector during the pandemic must be recognised as the chancellor moves to put a squeeze on public sector salaries. |
Funding boost to support rape and domestic abuse victims
18/11/2020 Nearly £11m in new funding to support domestic abuse and rape victims this winter has been announced. |
Government announces ‘additional’ £40m of green funding
16/11/2020 The Government has announced that more areas are to be designated national parks and a second round of funding will be available to support the delivery of green jobs. |
DfT warns of conditions on £175m active travel cash
13/11/2020 Transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced councils' allocations for the £175m second tranche of the Active Travel Fund. |
Councils invited to bid for £20,000 to tackle pandemic-related housing issues
12/11/2020 Local authorities have been invited to bid for extra support to help them tackle the impact of COVID-19 on the housing crisis. |
County councils warn of insolvency risk without frontline cuts
12/11/2020 Only a fifth of England's largest councils are confident they can deliver a balanced budget next year without dramatic reduction to services, a new survey has revealed. |
£500m bus partnership fund open to bids
11/11/2020 The Scottish Government's £500m Bus Partnership Fund to deliver bus priority infrastructure has opened for applications. |
Council chiefs call for culture funding to support people during lockdown
11/11/2020 Local authority leaders have called on the Government to invest more in culture, sport and leisure activities as a new report reveals councils spend over £2bn a year on these areas. |
Allocation of £3.6bn towns fund appears 'politically motivated', watchdog warns
11/11/2020 The Government has been accused of 'political bias' when allocating funding from its £3.6bn Towns Fund by the public spending watchdog. |
Croydon issues Section 114 notice
10/11/2020 Crisis-hit Croydon LBC has issued a Section 114 notice after extra spending controls proved not to be enough. |
Latest round of funding for heritage sites announced
09/11/2020 The major share of a £1.57bn fund dedicated to supporting the recovery of cultural assets has been awarded outside of London, according to the Government. |
Councils welcome £170m COVID winter grant scheme
09/11/2020 A new £170m COVID winter grant scheme will be distributed to councils to stop children going hungry during the second wave of the pandemic. |
Councils call for devolution of National Citizen Service funding
06/11/2020 Only one in six eligible young people are taking part in the National Citizen Service (NCS), leading to calls for the Government to devolve its funding to local youth services instead. |
MP calls for changes to highways funding formula
05/11/2020 A Conservative MP has called for reforms to the maintenance funding formula for highway authorities in England to take into account road condition, traffic volumes and the council's own contributions. |
This issue of Public Property examines how how flexible workspaces can lead the way in regeneration for local authorities, Why local authority intervention is key to successful urban regeneration schemes and if the Government’s challenge of embracing beauty is an opportunity for communities.
The March issue also takes a closer look at Blackburn with Darwen Council's first digital health hub to help people gain control over health and care services.
