Powers allowing councils to raise additional revenues locally, as hinted at by levelling up secretary Michael Gove, could come hand-in-hand with a reduction in grant funding, an expert has warned.
Local audit firms have been told by the Financial Reporting Council to “urgently” improve the quality and timeliness of their work, after the number of unacceptable audits rose last year.
Any cuts to public services will be “almost certain” to damage performance, which is already struggling in the wake of a decade of austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has been warned...
The government’s choice to not go ahead with a Spending Review this year means departments will need to make difficult decisions on services as inflation erodes their budgets, experts have warned.
The inflation crisis shows just how important ‘levelling up’ the UK should be to the government, former CIPFA president Mike Driver told the PF Live Scotland conference.
Councils are shelving long-term capital projects to focus on shorter term budgetary pressures brought on by rising prices without additional funding, an expert has said.
The government is seeking views on whether to retain a statutory override allowing local authorities to exclude changes to pooled investment values from revenue accounts.
As finance and resources director at North Wales Housing, incoming CIPFA president Jayne Owen understands the pressures being placed on the public by the current economic climate. But she is clear...
CIPFA chief economist Jeffrey Matsu explains how the new Local Government Finance Model, produced by the institute alongside the IFS and District Councils’ Network, can help authorities plan their...
Organisations need to take decisive action to improve the scope and role of internal audit, to avoid weakening risk-management and oversight, says Diana Melville.
The government is set to make it a statutory requirement for councils in England to have independent members on audit committees as part of local audit reforms.
A lack of funding for staff development and challenges around the recruitment of new officers is preventing the internal audit function from reaching its full potential, according to a CIPFA report.
CIPFA has welcomed government proposals to take greater intervention powers over council finances, saying they could help identify potential problems at an earlier stage.
Nottingham City Council will terminate a contract with a subsidiary company managing its housing stock, after an external investigation found it misspent millions of pounds of authority funding.