Organisations need to take decisive action to improve the scope and role of internal audit, to avoid weakening risk-management and oversight, says Diana Melville.
An English council is set to terminate a property management joint venture after an independent review found the business offered “limited value” to the authority.
Proposals to expand the right-to-buy scheme to housing associations and earmark national infrastructure levy income for new social housing have sparked funding concerns among councils.
Some regions across the UK are likely to miss out on initial development funding as the government directs its support towards the most deprived areas first, according to experts.
A chief finance officer at a council in the north of England did not rule out issuing further section 114 notices over potentially unlawful spending, having already issued one last month.
The lack of clarity over ministerial involvement in approving Levelling Up Fund bids has been branded “unsatisfactory” by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
The three major unions representing council workers in England have requested a “substantial pay rise” this year to help mitigate the impact of soaring inflation on their members.
A West Midlands council is looking to commercialise its management of parks, theatres and museums in a bid to reduce the burden they place on its revenue budget.
Public bodies could find it difficult to retain senior staff if the decade-long trend of sharper pay reductions at the top of the sector continues, an expert has warned.
The government is set to make it a statutory requirement for councils in England to have independent members on audit committees as part of local audit reforms.
Council workers in Scotland look increasingly likely to take industrial action if demands for a larger pay rise amid high inflation are not met, according to a union official.
An English city council expects a multi-million-pound funding gap in its 2022-23 budget, partly fuelled by rampant inflation and social care pressures.
An MP has asked the government for clarity on where ‘levelling up’ money is being distributed around the UK, suggesting the array of funding pots makes it “difficult, if not impossible” to see which...
Crisis-hit Slough Borough Council has been instructed to sell the majority of its property holdings in a bid to get its finances back on a sustainable footing.
The government is set to amend legislation so that local authorities can exit contracts with Russian companies, ensuring public funds do not contribute to the nation’s “barbaric war machine”.
The Scottish government has been told it should provide local authorities with a multi-year financial settlement to enable robust medium-term planning amid long-term funding reductions.
English councils may need to spend much more than the government has forecast when implementing reforms aimed at reducing the long-term cost of social care.
A county council in the north of England has issued a Section 114 notice over unlawful spending on commercial ventures and additional payments to its chief executive.
A lack of funding for staff development and challenges around the recruitment of new officers is preventing the internal audit function from reaching its full potential, according to a CIPFA report.
Local authorities in England should be mandated to work more collaboratively as part of a system reset aimed at reducing profiteering in children’s care, according to an independent review.
