The government will face some tough choices on benefit reforms following record applications, with some aspects of the system already “ripe for reform”, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Councils in England are set receive to an additional £30m to fund measures including Covid-19 marshals, to ensure the public and businesses follow coronavirus rules.
A new package of funding and financing flexibilities for local authorities in Scotland will allow councils to use capital receipts to meet funding pressures.
As much as £26bn paid out under the government-backed Bounce Back Loan Scheme could be lost to fraud or default, according to the National Audit Office.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak signalled that plans for the government to get debt back under control will be pushed into the medium term, following this year’s record borrowing.
Local authority expenditure on Covid-19 dropped in August to £567m, down from £594m in July, according to latest statistics from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Pre-pandemic, rail in Britain was forecast to grow by more than a third over the next two decades, but it will take extraordinary measures and levels of public money to get us back on track
Financial data for April to June shows councils’ revenue spending up 19% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. The figures will have made sombre reading in Whitehall and town...
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been asked by Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee asked to explain the arrangements put in place to help devolved administrations mitigate issues arising from the...
Proposed restrictions on borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board should be dropped to allow district councils to develop new income streams in the wake of Covid-19, the District Councils Network...
The UK is unlikely to see negative interest rates “imminently”, according to David Ramsden, deputy governor for markets and banking at the Bank of England.
Transport for London requires an extra £2bn this financial year to cover the drop in revenues relating to Covid-19, or risk deterioration of the transport network not seen since the 80s and 90s, it...
The work of the National Anti-Fraud Network has helped local authorities prevent millions of pounds of fraud throughout the pandemic, says Mark Astley.
English councils will need billions of extra funding both this year and in the long-term, due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, a think-tank has warned.
Speculation is growing that the government will opt for another one-year spending round following the announcement that November’s Budget will be delayed until next year.
As in any crisis, financial criminals have exploited Covid-19 for their own gain, repurposing tried and tested fraud techniques. It is crucial that public finance professionals are well informed to...
HMRC recovered £7.9bn less from fraud and error in the first three months of this financial year than it did in the same period in 2019 – a drop of more than half.