Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is to explore the possibility of selling some of its assets to avoid using £20m of government financing flexibilities this year.
Councils could need to shrink projects they have submitted to the Levelling Up Fund because the government has refused to adjust the pot for inflation, a senior minister has said.
Failures in the local audit market are leading to “increasingly incomplete and unreliable” data in central government reporting with councils left in the dark over spending decisions, the Public...
Soaring inflation is likely to put two-thirds of the government’s missions outlined in the Levelling Up White Paper at risk of failure, academics have warned.
Stormont’s departmental spending will exceed UK government funding by £660m in 2022-23 putting the devolved administration’s finances at risk, amid the lack of a formal budget, according to finance...
Ministers are set to introduce a cap on renewable energy revenues, aiming to “reduce the impact of unprecedented wholesale prices on consumers” in a move labelled a windfall tax by Labour.
Staff at Liverpool City Council will target improvements to contract management and governance, after an independent report criticised a “fragmented, overly complex and poorly understood”...
Shropshire Council must “radically change” its passive approach to ensure it can meet the financial challenges it faces, a peer review from the Local Government Association has found.
Leicester City Council is set to place three office buildings for sale or lease after the rise of hybrid working left the properties surplus to requirements.
Levelling up secretary Simon Clarke has fired a warning signal to councils that there will be “consequences” for perceived mismanagement following a series of high-profile government interventions.
The soaring cost of living combined with a decade of austerity could see up to a sixth of English councils fully deplete their reserves in 2023-24 without substantial spending cuts, experts have...
Government-appointed commissioners at Slough Borough Council have questioned the authority’s decision to purchase investment properties outside its boundaries, as it prepares to sell assets for a...
Local authorities have been urged by an external auditor to apply effective risk management to their subsidiary companies and other commercial activities to safeguard against financial risks.
Low investment and a reliance on interim staff in council finance teams will make it difficult to find “the next generation of section 151 officers”, experts at Grant Thornton have said.
The government is unlikely to hit its target for delivering affordable homes in rural areas, because wider market issues have had “a disproportionate impact” there, a senior civil servant has warned...
Proposals to give local authorities flexibility on how they spend levies charged on development projects could give councils the “easy option” to reduce local investment, MPs have warned.
Oxford City Council is set to lease its main office and move staff to its town hall, in a bid to deliver additional income and mitigate expensive maintenance costs.
The government’s energy cap is likely to lower inflation in the short term, but one expert warned that it might not yield longer-term savings on servicing the government’s large stock of interest-...
