Two councils given funding to help women back to work
Poorest areas could lose billions after Brexit, campaigners warn
Malthouse announces £142m infrastructure investment
Welsh public sector could lose up to £1bn a year to fraud
Are local authorities the new power players in the energy market?
Investment in renewable energy is becoming increasingly popular as a means to optimise existing assets. Clare Davey investigates this growing trend.
NAO to wade into fair funding review
05/06/2019 The National Audit Office (NAO) is gearing up to scrutinise the Government’s divisive fair funding review, The MJ can reveal. |
Cornwall secures Spaceport funding
05/06/2019 Cornwall is set to be home to Europe’s first 'horizontal launch' spaceport. |
Mayor calls for creation of 'free trade zones' in city centres
05/06/2019 West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has called for a 'wholesale review' of the business rates system to save struggling high streets. |
Platform launches fund to help councils crowdsource for ‘green’ projects
04/06/2019 A finance platform has invited councils to apply for grants to pilot new Community Municipal Bonds for raising finance for 'green' infrastructure projects. |
Government pays £15m to councils after business rate 'error'
03/06/2019 The Government may have to pay out up to £15m to councils after it made yet another error in its business rate pilot administration. |
Khan launches £100m SME investment fund
31/05/2019 The mayor of London yesterday launched the largest ever fund for small and medium enterprises, which includes £14m to support the transition to a circular economy. |
Campaigners deliver petition to tackle crisis in special needs education
31/05/2019 Teachers and campaigners have launched a call for more funds to pay for special needs education. |
Council funding system ‘unsustainable’, financial experts warn
29/05/2019 Spending on local services has fallen over the last decade and the funding available to councils will become ‘inadequate’, according to financial experts. |
Council tax is ‘regressive’, financial experts say
28/05/2019 Council tax hits the poorest residents much harder than it does the wealthiest, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. |
Council tax guide published to protect ‘vulnerable’
28/05/2019 The Government has published a council tax guide to help protect ‘vulnerable households’. |
British Steel’s financial troubles could cost councils nearly £3m
22/05/2019 Local authorities could lose £2.8m in business rates should British Steel go into administration, a real estate company has calculated. |
Councils warn of ‘draconian’ cuts to cover £50bn funding gap
22/05/2019 Local authorities have warned that they may be forced to resort to the ‘bare minimum’ of service provision if no extra funding is made available. |
£62m fund to regenerate historic high streets
20/05/2019 The culture secretary has said that a new £62m fund will ‘breathe new life’ into historic high streets across the country. |
Fund launched to plant 130,000 urban trees
20/05/2019 The environment secretary Michael Gove has announced a £10m fund to help encourage the planting of over a hundred thousand trees in urban areas across England. |
Council criticised for ‘sitting on’ £2.65m of developer contributions
17/05/2019 City of Edinburgh Council has been criticised for ‘sitting on’ £2.65m worth of contributions from the backers of large construction projects. |
Council tax system needs 'fundamental reform'
16/05/2019 The council tax system is ‘highly regressive and unsustainable,’ and needs ‘fundamental reform,’ progressive think-tank IPPR has argued. |
Grayling calls on councils to apply for green transport funding
16/05/2019 Chris Grayling has urged more local authorities to apply for funding earmarked for investment into ecologically sustainable transport projects. |
Councils ‘in the dark’ over youth service funding
15/05/2019 Local authority leaders have warned that councils ‘remain in the dark’ over youth service funding that helps tackle knife crime and county lines drug dealing. |
Councils call for extra funding to tackle illegal knife sales
15/05/2019 The prosecution fund to help councils tackle illegal knife sales needs urgent investment, town hall chiefs have warned. |
Sixth form funding declines ‘substantially’, think tank warns
13/05/2019 Education funding for 16 to 19 year olds has ‘declined substantially’ over the last decade, new research has revealed. |
Debenhams’ CVA to cost councils £8.5m in rates
13/05/2019 Local authorities are set to lose millions of pounds worth of business rates due to Debenhams financial difficulties, ratings experts say. |
London council budgets slashed 17% over last decade
13/05/2019 London’s local authority budgets have dropped by nearly a fifth – or 17% – per head over the last eight years, a new study has revealed. |
Malthouse launches £8.5m to support neighbourhood plans
13/05/2019 Minister of state for housing Kit Malthouse launched a multi-million pound fund at the weekend to help voluntary groups deliver thousands of discounted homes. |
Councils raise £242m from parking permit applications
10/05/2019 Local authorities have raised hundreds of millions of pounds over the last three years thanks to applications for parking permits, according to a new study. |
UK needs £1bn a year to combat flood threat
09/05/2019 A long-term strategy to ensure infrastructure is resilient to flooding and coastal change by 2050 has been unveiled today by the Environment Agency. |
Whitehall launches £200m fund to replace unsafe cladding
09/05/2019 The Government has launched a £200m fund to help remove and replace unsafe cladding on privately owned high-rise buildings after campaigners raise awareness of the issue. |
Council to save £143m after ending LOBO loan
07/05/2019 Newham Council is set to £143m after successfully terminating its Lender Option Borrower Option (LOBO) loans with NatWest bank. |
Tree disease to cost economy £15bn
07/05/2019 Ash dieback will cost the UK economy £15bn, researchers have calculated. |
Children’s homes face ‘delicate moment’, report reveals
03/05/2019 A report on the state of the children’s homes market has cautioned central and local government to ‘be mindful’ of the consequences of funding cuts. |
Funding boost to help vulnerable rough sleepers
03/05/2019 More than 100 local authorities are to share £25m funding to help vulnerable rough sleepers to get specialist support. |
Spending Review should put aside £3bn for children's services say MPs
30/04/2019 The Government needs to release at least £3bn of non-ring-fenced funding to local authorities to save children’s services from the ‘crisis’ they are in, MPs have said. |
Think tank calls for per-mile London road charging
29/04/2019 A new report has called for London to move towards a new road user charging scheme that charges drivers on a per-mile basis. |
Amount of unpaid council tax rises to £3bn
26/04/2019 The total amount of unpaid council tax has risen to more than £3bn, according to the latest figures. |
Hopes for legislative backing behind new code
24/04/2019 An overhaul of financial management in councils could be enshrined in law, according to a consultation that stakeholders must respond to within days to influence. |
Council spending on single homeless people falls by £1bn
24/04/2019 Councils have called on the Government to provide more help to tackle homelessness, following figures showing a drop in the amount they spend dealing with it. |
Over 1,500 pubs close since controversial business rates revaluation
23/04/2019 Hundreds of local pubs closed down last year due to a ‘myriad of cost pressures’, new research reveals. |
Homelessness charity wins £3.6m lottery grant
23/04/2019 A charity which helps people battling with homelessness, long-term unemployment and addiction is set to expand thanks to a grant from the national lottery. |
A £3m fund launched to improve infrastructure procurement
18/04/2019 A £3m fund has been made available for pilot projects that explore new approaches to procurement in housing and council-led infrastructure construction. |
Special needs provision in schools cut by over £1bn
16/04/2019 Children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities have lost out on £1.2bn of Government funding over the last four years. |
Report calls for ‘fundamental review’ of council funding
15/04/2019 A new report has called for a review of local government funding in Scotland and argues there needs to be a fairer system of property taxes and environmental charges. |
Councils call for extra funding to stop UK being flooded with unsafe products
15/04/2019 Council leaders have warned new national bodies are not the best way to protect the UK from unsafe products. |
Council buys office to generate income
15/04/2019 South Cambridgeshire DC has made a £13m investment in a high-quality office building to generate an initial net return of around 5.6%. |
Council chiefs call for investment in services young people ‘need’
12/04/2019 Local government leaders have welcomed the Government’s proposed youth charter, but insist investment in local services is what young people ‘want and need’. |
Austerity 'could end at the Spending Review'
11/04/2019 There is a ‘genuine chance’ austerity will end at the Spending Review, according to upbeat director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson. |
Scottish councils lose over £120m due to ‘weak’ financial controls
11/04/2019 Systems to prevent public money being lost to mistakes and fraud in local government ‘may be under strain’, Audit Scotland has warned. |
Corbyn launches attack on fair funding review
11/04/2019 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has entered the debate over the fair funding review, claiming it ‘will make poorer areas even poorer’. |
Wales champions council tax discounts for mentally impaired
10/04/2019 A new initiative will make it easier for people with a severe mental impairment to receive a council tax discount. |
Council property firm records losses
10/04/2019 The property company run by Barking & Dagenham LBC has reported losses of almost £4m in its first year of operation. |
Council chiefs defend £100,000 plus pay cheques
09/04/2019 Local leaders have defended the generous remuneration packages paid to a minority of council employees arguing they are decided upon in a ‘transparent’ manner. |
Council pays £1.75m in compensation to recycling contractor
08/04/2019 Milton Keynes Council has reached a settlement with the contractor Viridor to cover what the local authority describes as the ‘historic costs’ of contamination in its recycling sacks. |
The March issue of Local Government News explores alternative funding channels that are available to councils beyond the Public Works Loan Board, what hurdles merging councils face in coming together, and how local government is handling GDPR.
This issue also has a special highways and street lighting section exploring how councils can use lighting to embark on their smart city journey and using IoT technology to weather the storm.
