A small number of councils buying commercial property purely to make money should not result in a complete overhaul of CIPFA’s guidelines on investment, chief executive Rob Whiteman has told MPs.
The Covid-19 pandemic strengthens the argument that human capital investment can help build a healthy and prosperous society, argues senior fellow at the Health Foundation Dave Finch.
Local authority investment in commercial property has increased fourteen-fold over three years as councils seek alternative sources of revenue amid cuts leaving them open to risk, the spending...
“Outcome” is one of those talismanic local government words that has been bludgeoned into near meaninglessness by repetition and ubiquity, argues Grant Thornton’s Martin Ellender.
Kent County Council will have to wait a further 10 days before it receives its first payment from the stricken Woodford Equity Income Fund, it has been announced.
The value of Kent County Council’s pension scheme investment in the troubled Woodford fund has fallen by £36m, figures from the local authority have revealed.
John Thornton looks at whether it is fair for the Public Accounts Committee to strongly criticised the Cabinet Office over the evidence base and lack of a business case for the National...
The world of local government finance has seen massive changes in recent years, but updated guidance is available to help bridge the gap, explains consultant Peter Worth.
Many redevelopment schemes in the UK put the onus on corporate profit at the cost of local communities but other countries show there is another way, argues Genevieve Maitland Hudson of Social...
CIPFA is to work on fresh guidance over concerns councils in England are putting public funds at “unnecessary or unquantified risk” when borrowing to invest in commercial property.
Business rates are broken and deter companies from investing to boost productivity - abolishing them would bring benefits to the public sector as well as enterprise, argues Lib Dem Lord Fox.
Changes to the statutory guidance on local authority investments offer an opportunity for the social economy to make a strong case for local capital accumulation and active community governance, says...
Chancellor George Osborne and seven council leaders have set out £24bn worth of investment opportunities across the North of England to Chinese investors.
The ongoing fiscal squeeze is encouraging public bodies of all shapes and sizes to reassess how they use, and might benefit from, the properties on their books
