The government will need to adopt permanent tax hikes or spending cuts to avoid debt soaring to more than 300% of GDP by the 2070s, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned.
Rising service demand and debt costs have led two borough councils to warn they risk issuing section 114 notices, with one perhaps coming as soon as October.
All non-essential spending has stopped at Birmingham City Council as officials reckon with an expected £860m hit from historic equal pay issues and a faltering IT system implementation.
Significant issues in setting up the UK Health Security Agency created a “fundamental absence of governance arrangements and controls”, leaving £3.3bn of medical supplies unaccounted for and drawing...
The government’s growing debt burden and high interest costs are a key risk to public finances and must be managed carefully, the National Audit Office has said.
The lack of funding for police forces to recruit support staff has left officers undertaking aspects of these roles instead, risking community policing and value for money, an expert has warned.
Long-delayed reforms to modernise courts in England and Wales have placed an “unacceptable” burden on staff and risk making already long case backlogs even longer, MPs have warned.
Cuts leading up to Covid-19 left Public Health England insufficiently funded to meet its new pandemic responsibilities, the body’s former chief executive has said.
Weak financial controls and a “culture which is not focused upon compliance” contributed to Nottingham City Council’s unlawful spending of housing money, an independent report has concluded.
A further £760m hit to Birmingham City Council’s finances from a 2012 court ruling means the authority needs to “take all necessary steps” to cut spending and avoid issuing a Section 114 notice.
The failure of public bodies to adequately maintain their properties represents a ticking time bomb for local authorities, an expert told delegates at 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...
Northern Ireland’s civil servants have warned that “sub-optimal” budgets will lead to further cuts that could constrain council services and worsen court delays.
Thurrock Council will need to cut services back to near the statutory minimum after “repeated failures” to manage major investment and regeneration projects led to substantial losses, a long-awaited...
Dwindling reserves and the need to make more than £50m of cuts to balance the 2023-24 budget have put Shropshire Council in an “extremely challenging” position, the Local Government Association...
The council’s additional minimum revenue provision this year – after being under-calculated for more than a decade – is nearly six times its core funding.
