Iain Murray, director of public financial management at CIPFA reviews the key pinch points for local authorities 2022, and previews the key issues facing the sector next year.
The failure to replace outdated IT systems is hindering the government’s ability to reduce the costs of managing its extensive estate, MPs have warned.
Local authority reserves collectively rose again last year, as many councils diverted funding to build up their buffers in the absence of a long-term funding settlement, CIPFA has said.
Thurrock Council’s decision to issue a section 114 notice is a necessary step to ensuring exceptional government support, commissioners appointed to turn around the authority have said.
Scottish ministers have overstated the level of funding in the 2023-24 draft budget, after falling to account for top-ups in this year’s budget, economists have claimed.
The Bank of England has put its bank rate up to 3.5% – the highest it has been since 2008 – in a bid to reduce inflation, which has already begun to fall.
The Scottish Government has outlined plans to increase taxes on high earners and provide more funding to local authorities next year to help manage pressures stemming from the cost-of-living crisis.
High inflation and increased demand mean local authorities in Wales still face difficult decisions next year despite an 8% funding increase, leaders have said.
The lack of additional support for early years and post-16 education will stretch resources further as historically high inflation eats into budgets, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
Ministers are set to raise the revenue support grant for local authorities in line with inflation next year, as part of the upcoming local government settlement.
The lack of sufficient data on how much local authorities received from government grants makes it impossible to scrutinise the success of funding, Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and...
Disagreement over how to value Luton Borough Council’s subsidiary airport company means the authority’s 2018-19 accounts have not been signed off, and auditors are considering making a statutory...
The financially restrictive devolution settlement is holding back Wales’s ability to plan for the long term, an independent commission looking at the country’s future has argued.
