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23 Jul 20
Councils have insufficient funds to cope with a second wave of Covid-19, according to 85% of council chiefs.
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23 Jul 20
MSPs have launched an inquiry into Scottish local government finances aimed at working out whether Covid-19 will lead to a “new normal” in the way services are delivered.
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22 Jul 20
Central government has failed to give local authorities enough clarity over long-term funding during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the Public Accounts Committee.
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22 Jul 20
The government is asking for views on the potential of a capital values tax or online services tax to replace business rates in its comprehensive review of the tax.
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21 Jul 20
Delayed local government audits are to blame for the Treasury’s slow production of the Whole of Government Accounts, according to the National Audit Office.
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21 Jul 20
The Covid-19 response has brought to the surface a new set of tensions to bedevil central and local government relations, which may imperil recovery efforts
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21 Jul 20
Local authority borrowing continued to rise in June to £3bn, £100m more than in May, and ten times higher than the figure for June 2019, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
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16 Jul 20
Councils borrowed £875m for housing projects in March from the Public Works Loan Board after the introduction of a special rate for housing revenue account projects in the Budget.
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16 Jul 20
Birmingham City Council has received the biggest allocation from the government’s latest £500m pot to support councils with spending related to Covid-19.
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16 Jul 20
Councils have demonstrated their value like never before in helping tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Finance departments may not be directly on the frontline, but their role ensuring that public money...
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15 Jul 20
Luton Borough Council has agreed a “horrendous” package of spending cuts after the airport operator it owns declared it could not make an expected £16m dividend payment due to Covid-19.
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13 Jul 20
The government is “blind” to the extreme risks some councils have exposed themselves to through their commercial investments, a report by the Public Accounts Committee has claimed.
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10 Jul 20
As we design the way the NHS and wider public sector will work in the future, we should remember the collaborative successes achieved during the pandemic, argues the Healthcare Financial Management...
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10 Jul 20
Thurrock Council has rejected concerns raised in the Financial Times over its investment strategy, which has seen it borrow more than £1bn from other councils.
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10 Jul 20
Moving away from current budgeting principles to ease the pressures of the Covid-19 response would be a retrograde step for local government, writes Rob Whiteman.
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7 Jul 20
County and district councils are at loggerheads over the distribution of funding for low-income families struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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3 Jul 20
Local government minister Simon Clarke said the government’s forthcoming devolution white paper will help the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
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3 Jul 20
Council investment in land and buildings has dropped for the first time since 2011-12, according to data from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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3 Jul 20
Secretary of state Robert Jenrick has told local authorities he will “try his best” to secure more government funding for councils if it is needed as councils struggle to deal with financial burdens...
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3 Jul 20
Just a few months ago, amid efforts to decarbonise transport, the future looked bright for the bus and rail industry, but Covid-19 has obscured the route ahead, writes Peter White.
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2 Jul 20
PF reveals the scale of the financial challenge posed to councils by Covid-19 and hears how finance chiefs are tackling budgets, given the lack of funding clarity.
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2 Jul 20
£500m additional Covid-19-related funding from central government is not enough to prevent cuts to local authority budgets, according to the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities.
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2 Jul 20
The Cabinet Office has asked for evidence on the fairness in government debt collection.
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1 Jul 20
Thurrock Council is expecting a funding gap of almost £27m relating to the extension of a road network, a report from the council has warned.
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30 Jun 20
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has been warned it could be forced into a section 114 notice in a CIPFA report which found a flawed process for setting reserve levels.