Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a windfall tax on energy companies’ “extraordinary” profits to help fund support measures aimed at helping people through the cost-of-living crisis.
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.
Public sector borrowing fell in April as the recovery from the Covid-19 shock continued, but measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis remain “tricky” according to commentators.
Criticism over the lack of audit work carried out at Liverpool City Council has led the authority to create a new position for a chief internal audit officer.
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.
The upcoming national care review has been tipped as a “once-in-a-generation” chance to reform how councils support vulnerable children at risk of harm, after rising demand caused costs to increase...
The Northern Irish government could be given responsibility for setting and collecting income tax by 2027, matching agreements in Scotland and Wales, if there is political will to do so, a report has...
The Department for Work and Pensions is set to spend £600m and give officers new legal powers in a move ministers say will help prevent £4bn of fraud in the benefit system over the next five years.
A watchdog has warned that a proposed merger of waste management firms could reduce competition and lead to more costly and lower quality services for councils.
An English county council is set to reallocate funds earmarked for construction projects to help close a forecast £4.5m gap in its structural maintenance programme as soaring inflation puts pressure...
MPs have criticised the government for allowing “billions and billions” of pounds to be lost to fraud and error in Covid-19 support schemes, and particularly for lacking information on loans and...
A council in south east England has discussed its high debt levels with the government, amid concerns it could fall foul of proposed capital risk interventions.
Seventeen district and borough councils in England will receive directions from the government limiting capital spending and procurement before they are replaced by new unitary authorities next year.
A council in south west England will borrow up to £10m to fund “critical” temporary accommodation to house homeless families amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Government plans to cut 90,000 jobs from the civil service mark a return to the austerity that hurt economic growth and damaged public services in the 2010s, a trade union leader has warned.
The government is set to restrict new local authority borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board if it believes the council is at risk of not repaying.
The government has published statutory guidance seeking to restrict the level of exit payments made to local government employees above statutory or contractual limits.
