Dwindling reserves and a forecast £17m gap in Medway Council’s budget this year have put the authority’s finances at risk and led to calls for more funding for the sector.
Rising service demand combined with high inflation and rising interest rates has made delivering a balanced budget “very difficult to achieve” without further government support, a councillor at...
Proposals to increase council tax rates in Scotland will impact the highest value properties and make the levy less regressive, ministers and local leaders have said.
The government will fail to reduce regional inequalities without matching the “serious level” of money spent developing East Germany following unification, an expert told Public Finance Live...
Covid-19’s continued impact on passenger numbers led to the council company that owns Luton Airport making more than £230m of losses in its most recently published accounts, but the council has...
English councils have welcomed a government pledge to fully fund a pay rise for NHS contracted services this year, which council leaders said will safeguard community healthcare.
The UK’s social housing model is too reliant on providers making sales to generate income, creating “conflicts of interest” in the system, MPs have been told.
The government’s flagship ‘levelling up’ policy has so far not effectively funded some of the country’s most deprived areas because of tensions within its approach, a group of researchers has said.
Any ambition to fix the social care sector will fail without sufficient political will to provide a sustainable long-term funding settlement, service leaders have warned.
Conflicting regulations and insufficient funding mean local authorities are struggling to meet the needs of children in care, a senior officer has warned.
Plans to halve proposed funding to revitalise the social care workforce show the government is not serious about improving and investing in the sector, experts have said.
Councils will struggle to meet their net-zero goals because the funding model is too short-term, experts have warned as some authorities begin scaling back their ambitions.
Scottish ministers have overstated the level of funding in the 2023-24 draft budget, after falling to account for top-ups in this year’s budget, economists have claimed.
