Urgent action is needed to repair arrangements for external audit that have “fundamentally failed”, as well as to overhaul the “wasteful, unfair and ineffective” local government funding system,...
The statistics collected by the Office for Local Government “do not add value” beyond the current level of information gathered by councils, local leaders have said.
A central body with powers to oversee local authorities could help prevent disasters similar to the recent collapses in the sector, experts have told PF.
The lack of internal scrutiny ahead of Thurrock Council’s collapse proves the importance of councillor training and financial understanding, experts have said.
The current level of information held by central government on local authority owned subsidiaries is weak, according to an expert who also suggested departments could be requesting additional data.
