Increased funding for the NHS and Department of Health & Social Care is welcome, but is not enough to cover the impact of Covid-19 or transformation plans, explains NHS Providers policy adviser...
The value of government contracts put out to tender last year fell 8% to £101bn, despite large Covid-19 deals, according to government contracts analysis firm Tussell.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a grant funding package worth up to £4.6bn to be allocated by councils, to help keep businesses in Britain afloat following the third national lockdown.
The Welsh Government has proposed a one percentage point increase in its residential land transaction tax, the successor to stamp duty land tax, to help “support housing priorities”.
Core funding for councils in England is set to be 3% lower in real terms per head next year than in 2015-2016, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
At the end of a traumatic year, PF asks local government figures whether government has done enough to shield the sector from the financial impact of Covid-19.
The NHS Test and Trace Service is expected to cost £22bn this year, despite struggling to meet targets on testing and contracting tracing, the National Audit Office has said.
As many as one in 20 local authorities in England risk financial failure as a result of a disruptive European Union Exit, according to a leaked government report.
More than half of local authority audit opinions for 2019-20 missed the extended 30 November deadline, according to oversight body Public Sector Audit Appointments.
Local authorities’ spending on buying property has fallen more than half following the outbreak of Covid-19, according to statistics from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The Department for Transport paid out £309m more to railway operators than it received from income in 2019-2020, according to the National Audit Office.
The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have a long-lasting impact on governance and financial management in public bodies – Sarah Sheen looks at the issues.
City of Edinburgh Council’s use of its general fund reserves is unsustainable and will be unable to cover future economic shocks, Audit Scotland has warned.
Councils in England will receive an additional £3bn to cover Covid-19 expenditure over the next year, alongside a lifting of social care precept for council tax, the government has confirmed.
The UK government has spent an additional £10bn on personal protective equipment this year, as a result of “inadequate stockpiling”, according to the National Audit Office.
The UK’s GDP is forecast to decrease by as much as 3.6% in the final three months of this year as result of the second lockdown, according to advisory firm PwC.
A council granted a capitalisation direction in March has warned it could be forced to deplete its usable reserves down to “unsustainable levels” to help meet an £11m funding gap.
More than half of English councils could be at risk of financial failure by 2023 if the Spending Review merely maintains funding levels, a report from financial adviser Grant Thornton has found.
Monetary policy will attempt to combat long-term scarring to UK GDP from Covid-19 forecast at £40bn a year, according to a deputy governor of the Bank of England.