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Cuts to care services are necessary to address a large funding gap next year at East Sussex County Council, the authority warned as it agreed to consult on savings proposals for next year.
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Hundreds of young people who have approached councils for help with homelessness are being illegally turned away, the Guardian has reported.
Helpline operators at homelessness charity Centrepoint recorded 564 instances of council officials ‘gatekeeping’ services in the past 14 months.
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Targeting more funding towards preventative services could deliver an extra £11bn annual return on investment (ROI), according to new research.
The NHS Confederation report found that the top 20 interventions by ROI were community based, but noted that the public health grant to councils, which funds many preventative services, had effectively been cut by 28% per person since 2015-16.
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Landmark trailblazer deals agreed with the previous government are “under review” and may not go ahead as planned, LGC has learned.
Speaking to LGC last week, Tees Valley CA mayor Ben Houchen (Con) said he believed the deals were facing resistance from the Treasury and also raised concerns the government’s policy of local growth plans would reduce metro mayors’ freedoms.
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Councils on the south coast have submitted conflicting devolution plans to the government, LGC has learned, however they have not ruled out working together.
East and West Sussex CCs have both responded to the government’s call for expressions of interest in devolution with a request for more powers and funding to be devolved on a single county footprint.
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The County Councils Network (CCN) has warned that local authorities face an “unpalatable trade-off” between reducing statutory services and “insolvency” amid a £54bn funding gap.
According to the latest research by the CCN, published today (3 October), rising demand, inflation and continuing market failure have caused local authority costs to rise by £26bn between 2022 and 2030. These costs are primarily driven by three services: adult social care, children’s social care, and home-to-school transport.
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The cost of building a home may be higher than house prices in up to 60 UK local authority areas, according to new research.
Analysis by The Housing Forum has put the cost of developing an average-sized three-bed house at about £242,000, including construction, external works, planning and other fees.
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The UK could introduce a hypothecated payroll tax like in France, a former adviser to a series of Cabinet ministers has suggested.
In France, the Versement Mobilité is a 0.9% to 2.85% payroll tax levied on all employers with at least 11 employees to provide 45% of local transit authorities budgets.
Speaking to The MJ, Tim Leunig, who advised Rishi Sunak during his prime ministership and is now chief economist at centre-right think-tank Onward, said such a scheme would encounter some difficulties but the successful implementation of it in France showed it could be done.
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Frustrated council officers are still being invited to bid for small pots of cash despite ministers promising to end competitive bidding.
The Local Government Association's Budget and Spending Review submission argued that competitive bidding pots ‘should be consigned to history'.
However, competitive bidding pots are still being launched, with local resilience forums (LRF) invited by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to bid for a proportion of a £450,000 innovation fund for 2024-25.
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Talks have been held with the Government over councils' need for more support to enforce fire safety rules after the Grenfell fire inquiry concluded.
The publication of the Grenfell Inquiry phase two report has brought a renewed focus on fire safety after the inquiry found a litany of regulations had not been followed.
Officials from the Local Government Association (LGA) have been in discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about factors limiting the sector's ability to fulfil statutory duties to regulate residential safety.
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Councils will be responsible for reception arrangements helping British nationals arriving from Lebanon after the Government began an evacuation.
The Government chartered its first flight this week - arriving into Birmingham Airport today - as conflict in the Middle East spilled across the Lebanese border.
It is understood the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has estimated there are about 16,000 people with British or dual nationality in the country, with Whitehall expecting up to 6,000 people may choose to move to the UK if the situation escalates.
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Civil servants are actively looking at relaxing the requirement that forces councils to open a Housing Revenue Account (HRA) when they hold 200 homes or more, The MJ understands.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government officials are believed to be interested in looking at raising the limit.
Councils with an HRA have to fully cover their housing maintenance, management and debt servicing costs from their rent and service charge income instead of using money from their general fund.
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Local authorities in some of the country's most deprived areas have called for allocations of council funding to be handled by an independent body.
In a submission ahead of this month's Budget, seen by The MJ, the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (SIGOMA) argued ministers should be stripped off their role so that politics could be taken out of distribution.
SIGOMA said existing funding for local authorities was ‘not distributed fairly', with funding ‘no longer being directed towards need'.
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Government data shows the number of social housing properties lying vacant has increased by more than half over five years as waiting lists grow. There are almost 70,000 unoccupied council and housing association properties, up from 46,000 in 2018. The LGA said part of the problem was a backlog of renovations since the pandemic. Cllr Adam Hug, LGA housing spokesperson, said: “Councils are struggling to keep up with costs as high inflation means the cost of materials for refurbishing existing stock has become extremely expensive. Many councils and their contractors (also) face recruitment challenges.”
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Norfolk County Council is planning millions of pounds of cuts it does ‘not want to make’ in the face of a £44.75m deficit in its budget for next year.
The local authority has identified £33.5m of spending cuts for 2025-26, including £16.5m in adult’s social care, £7m in children’s services and £6m on infrastructure.
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Two of the MPs running to be the leader of the Conservative party have apologised to councillors, with one admitting that “behaviour in Westminster” had affected local elections.
On the first day of party conference in Birmingham James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch promised to repair their relationship with councillors at the Local Government Association members event yesterday.
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Almost 18,000 households in Kent could be missing out on a combined £68m in unclaimed Pension Credit, according to the county council.
The local authority has urged pensioners to check if they are eligible for the state benefit and sign up as soon as possible, with a reminder that it will also make them eligible for the winter fuel payment.
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Fears are growing towns in some of the most deprived areas of the country are set to lose out on billions in levelling up funding promised under the Conservative government.
Senior councillors and officers from councils across the country have told LGC they have yet to receive confirmation from new ministers that cash promised in round three of the levelling up fund, the longer term plan for towns or as part of levelling up partnerships will still be made available.
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As of 1 October 2024, sponsors/hosts of new arrivals are not eligible to receive thank you payments for hosting a close family member who moves into their home in the UK. This change applies to payment claims taking place from this date, irrespective of visa application dates.
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Four-fifths of local authorities have now published their 2023/24 draft accounts, showing that council finance teams have “done their bit”, new research has revealed.
According to the latest LG improve accounts tracker, published today (1 October), 249 local authorities have published their draft accounts for 2023/24, with two councils, Herefordshire and Torridge, receiving final opinions. Consequently, 63 local authorities have still to publish their accounts for 2023/24.
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For around 14 years, councils have been losing services and staff to what was originally labelled the “Barnet Graph of Doom” and later called the “Jaws of Doom”: a graph resembling a crocodile’s mouth, showing the worsening budgetary pressures of councils.
When asked whether what was feared in 2011, when the graph was created, has finally come to a head and the jaws of the crocodile are closing or have shut, MOTB panellists overwhelmingly voted ‘yes’.
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Former communities secretary Michael Gove has admitted that local government took an “unfair” and “disproportionate” share of austerity and “suffered”.
Speaking at the fringe event hosted by think tanks IPPR North and Onward during the Conservative party conference, Mr Gove said that even though he agrees with the “strategic decisions” made by George Osbourne and David Cameron in terms of the economy, “it was undeniably the case that local government suffered as a result.”
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The failure to build enough homes contributed to the Conservative party’s general election “downfall”, a former housing minister has said.
Speaking at the Conservative conference on Monday, Kit Malthouse, who was housing minister in the Theresa May government also urged Tory councils to “lean in” to the new government’s drive to build more homes.
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Former levelling up secretary Michael Gove has accused the government of forgoing its manifesto pledge to give regions “back control” following the withdrawal of devolution deals agreed by his administration.
Speaking at the fringe event hosted by think tanks IPPR North and Onward during the Conservative party conference, Mr Gove said he is disappointed that deals for Norfolk and Suffolk CCs have been dropped.
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Institute of Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson says changing the measure of debt, reportedly being considered by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, could free up billions for investment, but is not a risk-free move. He writes: “In any case none of this fiscal fiddling is of much help to Reeves when it comes to pressures on day-to-day spending. For it is not just her debt rule that constrains. She is also up against it on her pledge to borrow only to invest. However many billions she may “free up” for investment by changing her fiscal rules, she is still likely to have raise taxes if she wants to increase, or even maintain, spending on public services.”
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The local government minister admits that council tax is “terrible” but insists that no review to reform the system is taking place.
At a fringe event at Labour party conference this week organised by Demos and the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy, Jim McMahon was asked about council tax.
“There is no review of council tax taking place,” he said. “It is a terrible tax, but probably the best we have got.”
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The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman received 2,498 complaints about council adult services in 2023-24, its annual report reveals today.
The ombudsman investigated 782 complaints about local authority adult social care provision and upheld 80% of them.
According to the latest figures from the ombudsman's annual research, complaints directed to councils about assessments and care planning were the most prevalent, accounting for 28% of all enquires.
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The chancellor told the Labour conference in Liverpool that “growth is the challenge and investment is the solution”. She also promised there will be “no return to austerity”.
Her first Budget is set to come at the end of October.
During the 45-minute speech, Ms Reeves confirmed a number of initiatives including cutting winter fuel payments, appointing a Covid corruption commissioner and VAT on private school fees.
Reeves also stuck to her claim that the previous Conservative government had left a £22bn “black hole” in the public's finances.
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Dan Neidle, founder of campaign group Tax Policy Associates has said Chancellor Rachel Reeves could raise billions by shaking up the council tax system. He has urged the Government to tweak the system so homeowners whose properties are worth over £2 million pay more.
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Local government minister Jim McMahon told LGC that addressing financial issues facing the sector was the first priority because “we can’t devolve to a system that is falling over”.
Speaking to LGC at the Labour party conference this week, Mr McMahon warned that improving the finances of local authorities should come before more powers are devolved to English regions.
During a fringe meeting organised by Demos and the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy Mr McMahon said: “Devolution will not work if councils are going bust left right and centre.”
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The new Government will not be asking councils for more information on their diversity spending, signalling a shift from the previous regime.
Conservative ‘minister for common sense' Esther McVey had suggested cash-strapped councils should cut back on their diversity spending, with local authorities asked to detail how much time and money they spent on staff training in this area as part of their productivity plans.
In a letter to council chief executives, Labour local government minister Jim McMahon acknowledged there had been ‘a lot of disquiet about the focus and tone on equality, diversity and inclusion'.
McMahon wrote: ‘I want to assure you that I am not going to try to micromanage how you run your organisations.
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The government wants all English regions to have a mayor because they are “part of our system going forward”.
Yesterday at Labour party conference local government minister Jim McMahon warned that regions may miss out if they do not opt for a mayoral devolution deal.
Councils have until 30 September to share their willingness for a mayor in their expressions of interest forms to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
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Hampshire County Council has given the green light to a £35m contract aimed at securing residential care capacity for children in care with complex needs.
The council has approved a proof-of-concept contract involving pump priming and block contracting.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves may change the calculations for the Government’s fiscal rules, which would allow for higher spending and investment on roads, hospitals and housing, according to government sources. This could still see cuts in some budgets, should they continue to rise at 1 per cent over inflation, which could affect areas such as the courts and local government.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has vowed ‘there will be no return to austerity' at the Labour Party Conference.
Reeves said Labour had to deal ‘with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions', in her first speech at conference as chancellor.
She said: ‘Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services and for investment and growth too.'
Reeves explained next month's Budget would be a Budget with ‘real ambition' and one to ‘rebuild Britain'. The Tory legacy would not ‘dim [Labour's] ambition for Britain', she said.
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Speaking to the BBC after the set-piece speech, the minister said the scheme would not be scrapped altogether as it was ‘fair' for long-term council house tenants to have the chance to own their property.
However, she was critical of the current levels of discount, which were set while the Conservatives were in power, and said there was a need to strike a ‘balance' that was ‘fairer to the taxpayer'.
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Treasury officials have confirmed that the 25 per cent discount on council tax for people living on their own will not be scrapped in this autumn’s budget. Analysis by the TaxPayers’ Alliance claimed that cutting the discount could have raised £5.4 billion, £1.9 billion of which would have been taken from single pensioners, it is reported.
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Councils are warning a new eco “incineration tax” could heap billions of unfunded costs on them. Emissions from burning waste will be taxed from 2028 as part of the Government’s efforts to increase the uptake of greener technologies. New analysis by the LGA, County Councils Network and District Councils Network show the proposals could cost councils as much as £747 million in 2028 and could rise to £1.1 billion in 2036, with a total cumulative cost over this period as high as £6.5 billion. They are calling on the Government to ensure the costs are passed on to the industries creating fossil-based material in the first place, such as found in packaging, textiles, electricals and furniture.
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Sir Keir Starmer has today committed to defend public services from further austerity and protect working people from tax rises. In an interview, the Prime Minister said public services “are on their knees” and “a lot of them are cut to the bone. And therefore we have got to make sure our public services are functioning properly.”
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Local government minister Jim McMahon said the government understood the “urgency” of making sure funding is directed to the “right places”.
Speaking yesterday at the local government rally at Labour Party Conference, organised by the Local Government Association Labour Group, Mr McMahon said council finances were a priority.
“We need to repair the finances of local government,” he said. “We are absolutely committed to repairing the foundations.”
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The Government will have to “take the risk” and buy up land to deliver its promise to build 1.5 million homes in the next Parliament, according to the boss of Homes England. The Government set out a number of reforms including changes to planning rules and imposing quotas on councils in order to meet the ambitious target. But with interest rates still high and the construction industry grappling with supply chain issues and worker shortages, experts have warned that significant state intervention will still be needed.
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Councils could face a collective bill of more than £1bn by 2036 under current government proposals to tax the carbon emitted from burning waste, industry organisations have warned.
Taxing councils in this way would be a “bombshell for the delicately-balanced funding of local waste services”, the Local Government Association (LGA), County Council Network (CCN) and District Councils Network (DCN) said.
The organisations have responded to a government consultation on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), a system that puts a market price on carbon emissions, arguing that the costs should be put on industry rather than councils.
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Health-related benefit claims have risen substantially across every part of England and Wales, according to a new Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report.
Every local authority in England and Wales, apart from the City of London, has seen an increase in claims since 2019.
The IFS report found that the number of working-age people getting health-related benefits in England and Wales has increased from 2.8 million in 2019/20, or 7.5% of the working-age population, to 3.9 million in 2023/24, or 10% of the working-age population.
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The cost of local authority borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) has dropped by around 80 basis points following falling interest rates in the UK and US.
According to figures yesterday (17 September), fixed interest rates on a 10-year loan were 4.5% compared to highs of 5.3% in May. The rate on a 20-year loan also reduced to below 5%, at 4.76%.
This comes as the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee prepares to announce its latest rate decision tomorrow after cutting the base rate to 5% in August.
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More than 75% of councils participating in Room151’s annual treasury and finance survey indicated that “reputational risks” have influenced their lending to local authorities facing financial difficulties.
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The situation in local government has started to get so bad, that it’s good.
Chris Naylor, director at Inner Circle Consulting, presented this hypothesis in his opening remarks as chair of the Local Authority Treasurers Investment Forum & FDs’ Summit 2024 today (19 September).
Explaining, Naylor said that the current status quo is not sustainable. “The difficult bit is that it’s difficult to conceive what the next steps are to overcome the big challenges. Equally, I think it’s completely inconceivable that we’ll leave the second quarter of this century without something major changing.”
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Four devolution agreements have been signed off in what the secretary of state for local government describes as ‘only the first step’ of the Government’s devolution drive.
If approved by Parliament, the agreements will empower residents in Lincolnshire and in Hull and East Yorkshire to elect regional mayors. Combined county authorities will also be established in Devon & Torbay and Lancashire.
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The most senior district council chief executive in the country this week conceded local government reorganisation will have to come back on the agenda.
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Unlawful children’s homes are demanding up to £20,000 a week per child and failing to keep vulnerable young people safe, the Family Court has heard. Increased demand for placements, especially for children with the most complex needs, has led to costs described as “breathtaking” by a senior judge. The estimated bill for housing children in one local authority area has more than doubled in three years to £16 million, one senior manager told the BBC, which risks bankrupting the council. The LGA has said that “immediate national action” was needed.
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Inflation has held steady at 2.2 per cent in the year to August, according to official figures. It means inflation remains slightly above the Bank of England’s target of 2 per cent but is significantly lower than at the peak of the cost of living crisis in 2022.
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A new tax on the carbon emitted from burning waste could see councils saddled with costs of more than £1bn, analysis from the Local Government Association, County Councils Network and District Councils’ Network has warned today.
The Emissions Trading Scheme is a system that puts market prices on carbon emissions – while it currently applies in the aviation sector, the previous government proposed expanding it to encompass the incineration of waste from 2028.
As part of a response to a consultation on the scheme, local government leaders are urging central government to ensure the costs of the expansion are passed onto the industries creating fossil-based materials.
New research from the LGA, CCN and DCN suggests that the proposals could cost councils £747m in 2028, which could jump to £1.1bn by 2036 – the cumulative cost of this period could be as high as £6.5bn. Leaders have also said that volatile markets could foster additional risks for councils that need to balance their budgets.
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An MP has called for stricter rules to address the disparity between the availability of holiday lets and homes for residents, during a Westminster Hall debate on the regulation of short-term lets. Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Alison Hume, asked the Government to "move at pace” to allow councils new licensing and planning powers to address a lack of housing, especially on the Yorkshire coast. The LGA said it had been raising concerns about unregulated growth in this sector “for some time” and that the issue indicated the need for regulation that allowed "local discretion and implementation [...] while enabling those places with significant impact on their communities to take action”.
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The number of second homes being put up for sale in one part of Wales has increased by more than 250 per cent, as homeowners and businesses criticise the Welsh Government's council tax premium. Many councils in Wales now charge an inflated tax rate for second homes, up to 300 per cent, with the aim of freeing up rarely used housing stock for locals and generating income.
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Council leaders have warned of even greater pressure on their stretched budgets if the Chancellor cuts funding for social care from next year. Rachel Reeves announced in July that she would not proceed with plans for a cap on social care costs, which were originally pledged by the last government, as part of her drive to fill a £22 billion shortfall. But councils say they are concerned money given to town halls over the past two financial years under those reform plans will be stopped from next year as part of the drive to save money. LGA Community Wellbeing Board Chairman Cllr David Fothergill said: “Previous funding allocated for charging reforms repurposed to help address immediate system pressures has been critical for people drawing on care and support as well as for councils’ budgets. Councils need confirmation in the Autumn Budget of the continuation of all existing grant funding to help provide a degree of certainty and confidence.”
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The LGA said that councils face a funding gap of more than £2 billion next year (2025/26) and warns against any “disastrous” further cuts in the Autumn Budget. In its submission to the Treasury ahead of the October 30 fiscal event, the LGA says the Government needs to take immediate steps to stabilise council finances and protect vital local services. Cllr Louise Gittins, LGA chair said: “Councils are the key to delivering the Government’s priorities, but the risk of financial failure across local government is potentially becoming systemic. The Government needs to take action to provide councils with financial stability and certainty in order to unlock their full potential.
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Treasury officials have discussed proposals for a raft of private finance deals to fund new schools, hospitals and transport projects as ministers contemplate further cuts to public spending. The Times understands that senior civil servants have examined the case for infrastructure investment partnerships, which would help ease the pressure on the Treasury.
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Florence Eshalomi is aiming to hold the government to account on local government finances and other issues after being elected chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.
She was voted into the position ahead of Shaun Davies, the former chair of the Local Government Association.
Eshalomi is the Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, and replaces Clive Betts as chair of the newly-named committee.
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The self-proclaimed ‘bogeyperson' of local government, Max Caller, said the sector had to have a conversation about ‘what is it you don't want us to do'.
Appearing at The MJ Future Forum Midlands, Caller was asked what should happen when funding fell short of funding statutory services.
He said: ‘We have to find different ways of securing it or decide to stop doing things completely.
‘Those are appalling decisions, but you have to enter those conversations.'
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The chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has called for a debate on local government reorganisation.
Speaking at The MJ's Future Forum Midlands event, Owen Mapley, said tens of millions of pounds had been saved by some from going unitary.
Mapley said: ‘We're all just "them" to the local population.
'At a time when finances are tight I think the onus is on all of us to take the lanyards off.
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Public Sector Audit Appointments is planning to increase audit fees by 9.5% for 2024-25 to cover "substantial" extra work.
A consultation on this fee hike has been launched to address the extra work audit firms will be required to undertake due to revised standards and a inflationary increase.
PSAA, which is required by law to consult on any fee scale increases, is proposing this extra charge to fund the "substantial additional audit work" outlined in the updated international standards of auditing on risks of material misstatement and fraud.
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Norfolk and Suffolk CCs have revealed the new Labour Government has scrapped the directly-elected county leader devolution deals agreed with the Conservatives.
Conservative leader of Norfolk, Kay Mason Billig, said: ‘I am bitterly disappointed that the new Government has halted our deal.
‘Ministers don't support the idea of a Norfolk-only deal or the idea of a county council leader elected by the public – even though this would not have involved additional bureaucracy.
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The Department of Health & Social Care is fighting for funding for “a lot of public health projects” in the upcoming government spending review, a minister has said.
HSJ's Mimi Launder reports that public health minister Andrew Gwynne said “prevention is very much at the heart” of the department’s bids for Treasury funding for upcoming spending reviews, adding that “hopefully coming out of the spending review will be a lot of public health projects” and “the funding to follow”.
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The UK economy did not grow in July, despite expectations from many economists that there would be some growth of 0.2 per cent over the summer months. It follows an unexpected economic slowdown in June.
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Local authorities are “teetering on the brink of financial disaster”, facing a collective funding shortfall of £4bn for the coming financial year, new research by union UNISON has revealed.
The report, which is called Councils on the Brink, found that authorities across England, Scotland and Wales face a collective funding shortfall of £4.3bn in 2025/26, which will rise to £8.5bn by 2026/27.
Across England alone, the funding gap for the coming financial year is £3.4bn, increasing to £6.9bn in 2026/27. This is higher than estimates by the Local Government Association in June, which projected a financial shortfall of £2.3bn.
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The Office for Local Government (Oflog) has been told to pause its rollout of ‘early warning conversations' with councils.
The Government is to review the long-term role of the watchdog, which was set up by the previous Conservative administration, by the end of the year.
In a letter from local government minister Jim McMahon to Oflog chief executive Josh Goodman, he said the Government was considering its ‘overall approach to early warning and interventions'.
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Uncertainty reigns over whether councils are still required to publish updates on their productivity plans.
Then local government minister Simon Hoare had told council chief executives to ‘consider how you will update the plans and report on progress on a regular basis'.
There was no statutory requirement to submit the plans by 19 July or publish updates on them.
Asked repeatedly whether councils were still expected to report regularly on progress, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) declined to comment.
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Senior civil servants have privately cast doubt on whether the Government will continue its offer of exceptional financial support to struggling councils, The MJ understands.
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Backlogs of financial statements are hampering local government reorganisation, according to a report by Grant Thornton.
The audit firm's report ‘Learning from the new unitary councils' found some councils ‘underestimated the complexity of internal audits' and ‘the lack of financial statements in some legacy councils is a cause for concern'.
The analysis, based on audits of eight authorities established since 2019, added: ‘There are too many example where outgoing councils have either not produced accounts or failed to deal with legacy technical issues.'
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The government will set the wheels in motion today for all local transport authorities to be given powers to take control over their bus services.
This ability is currently limited to mayoral combined authorities but will also be open to county and unitary councils once the Buses Bill passes through government.
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The financial guru has called on the government to change rules to allow low-income households in council tax arrears more time to put together repayment plans.
Martin Lewis has lambasted local authorities for their "loan shark-like" behaviour in relentlessly pursuing vulnerable individuals over delinquent council tax payments.
The money saving expert harshly condemned the "grotesque" tactics employed by some councils, where an initial lapse can rapidly snowball into exorbitant penalties and even draw legal complications.
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Consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has criticised the ‘grotesque’ methods authorities use to recover council tax and urged the Government to change the law on debt collection.
The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a charity founded by Mr Lewis, has launched a campaign urging ministers to end the ‘council tax trap’ that means people can face a ‘whirlwind’ of debt collection activity, fees and charges after missing just one payment.
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A group of 14 local authorities has written to Cabinet ministers to call for greater data sharing from central government to increase pension credit claims.
The councils made the call after chancellor Rachel Reeves announced winter fuel payments will be restricted to those receiving pension credit, meaning around 10 million pensioners could lose out.
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The former chair of the Commons' levelling up, housing & communities committee has told LGC that fixing the "broken" local government finance system should be a priority for the government.
Clive Betts (Lab) had chaired the committee since 2010 until the general election earlier this year. The term for chairs is limited to two parliaments or a continuous period of eight years, whichever is greater.
However, he was authorised to continue for a longer period because, after the 2019 general election, the House of Commons set aside the term limit for all committee chairs for the remainder of that parliament.
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The government has begun the necessary statutory steps required to enforce the local audit backstop dates.
On behalf of the comptroller and audit general and the National Audit Office, the government has laid the updated audit code of practice in parliament today.
This statutory instrument will give effect to the government proposals to reduce the backlog of externally audited accounts and set out the requirements for local auditors to fulfill their responsibilities under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.
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Nottingham City Council "will have to reduce services" to meet it biggest challenge of “living within its means” its new chief executive has told LGC.
The council issued a section 114 notice in November 2023, citing an increased demand for children’s and adults’ social care, rising homelessness presentations and the impact of inflation amid a general fund pressure of £57m.
In February, the government appointed commissioners to the council, replacing the improvement and assurance board. Nottingham was also one of 19 councils to be granted exceptional financial support by the government earlier this year.
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Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is considering abolishing the Right to Buy scheme for newly built council houses and cutting the discount offered to existing tenants. The Deputy Prime Minister is facing growing pressure from councils to reduce the cost of the policy and a consultation on proposals will be launched in October’s Budget.
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A cross-party coalition of more than 100 council landlords has warned that the council housing system in England is broken, with “urgent action” needed from the government if it is to deliver its housing pledges.
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Holding councils to account when things go wrong is important, but the sector’s latest ombudsman Amerdeep Somal has found that “systemic” pressures make it increasingly difficult for authorities to live up to expectations.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is a non-departmental body that has been around for half a century and investigates public complaints about councils and care providers. The ombudsman is appointed by the communities secretary and is subject to parliamentary scrutiny from the Commons’ housing, communities and local government committee.
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The number of second homes for sale in a Welsh county has trebled since council tax increased by 200%.There were 135 Pembrokeshire second homes on the market in July, compared to 38 the previous year, latest figures indicate.
New rules were introduced by the Welsh government with the aim of making it easier for people to afford homes in the area where they grew up. To help achieve this, powers were given to local authorities to charge a premium of up to 300% on top of the normal council tax rate for those who own a second home in Wales.
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Local authority leaders say they are having to drain their financial reserves to keep services afloat and avoid effective bankruptcy.
A survey of the mid-tier group of English city councils, which includes Southampton, Hull, Sunderland and Norwich, found that many that had previously avoided financial difficulties during periods of austerity were close to running out of funds.
Of the 24 councils, 60% said they were using financial reserves to fill funding gaps, matching the proportion who said they were “redesigning” services to cap costs after a period of high inflation.
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Failings on the part of the Government and Kensington & Chelsea LBC enabled the Grenfell Tower disaster to unfold, the official inquiry into the tragedy has found.
The second phase report of the inquiry found the 2017 fire that claimed the lives of 72 people was the ‘culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry'.
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The "muddled, slow, indecisive and piecemeal" response to the Grenfell Tower fire by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council has prompted calls for the power for the government to take over in an emergency.
The failures of the emergency response to the Grenfell fire, where over 70 people died, have prompted calls to empower the government to intervene further in an emergency.
The final report from the Grenfell inquiry, published today said: "The Grenfell Tower fire created an emergency on an unprecedented scale as a result of the loss of life, the destruction of so many homes and the displacement of over 800 people who were rendered homeless and, in many cases, for all practical purposed destitute. The arrangements for responding to civil emergencies were severely tested and in many respects did not perform as well as expected."
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Families are not getting sufficient help before they reach crisis point, according to a new report jointly produced by five charities, including the NSPCC and Barnardo’s. As a result, rising levels of poverty have meant that the number of children being placed in residential care has more than doubled over the past 12 years. Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said councils “stand ready” to address the challenges but needed “long-term funding” to do so.
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The Government has refused to rule out reducing the exemption on council tax for people living alone, where their bills are reduced by 25 per cent through the single person discount, it is reported. The LGA has said councils should have more local flexibility to take decisions around council tax.
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Council tax levels should be a matter for councils and communities, the LGA has said. As a principle, it has long-called for the cap on council tax rises before a referendum is needed to be scrapped. Cllr Pete Marland, Chair of the LGA’s Economy and Resources Board, said: “The ballot box on local election day allows for people to pass judgement on their councils.” However, council tax income cannot plug the funding gaps facing local services with councils facing a funding gap of more than £6 billion over the next two years, Cllr Marland added. He said: “We need a significant change in our funding to stabilise local government finance so we can deliver the services local people want to see."
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Some councils have introduced a council tax premium or holiday-let, it is reported in a feature exploring the pressures facing tourist destinations across England. Cllr Claire Holland, housing spokesperson for the LGA said added tax premiums were one way to incentivise second home owners to “bring these properties back into permanent use”.
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The government has announced today that the household support fund has been extended for another six months.
The fund, which is worth £421m for local authorities in England, is distributed by councils to directly help vulnerable households with expenses such as food, clothing, and utilities.
This is the fifth extension to the fund that was first launched in October 2021 by the Department for Work and Pensions as a response to the cost of living crisis.
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More than 100 councils have called for an emergency injection of £664 million from Government to stabilise their housing accounts and avoid delays to investment into new house-building schemes.
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New analysis by the BBC has found that more than 180 council-run libraries have been shut down or handed to voluntary groups to run since 2016, as local government faces a significant funding crisis. Communities facing greater depravation were four times more likely to have lost a publicly funded library, and there have been 2,000 jobs lost.
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Local authorities in England spent a record £1bn on temporary accommodation for homeless households last year, new analysis has revealed.
This represents an increase of more than 50% on the year before and includes £417m spent on hostel and bed & breakfast accommodation, a 63% increase on the previous year.
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Local government leaders welcome the launch of a New Homes Accelerator, which has been tasked with speeding up the delivery of stalled housing sites.
A team from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England will work with local authorities to drive forward housing schemes facing delays, according to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
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Waverley Borough Council is set to consider asking some residents to pay a ‘voluntary council tax’ to fund discretionary services.
Officers said the Surrey authority needed to generate extra income if it was to achieve its strategic priorities.
They have advised the council’s executive to ‘take a chance’ and launch a consultation with residents of Band H properties, who pay the highest rate of council tax, to measure support for a voluntary contribution scheme.
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Experts have urged the government to address the council tax system, as LGC research finds over half of those involved with local government are in favour of reform.
Council tax is currently based on property values from 1991 and 54% of respondents to LGC’s confidence survey said there should be a revaluation. Around 180 respondents who work for a council or are a councillor answered the questions on council tax.
Respondents criticised council tax for being “highly recessive”, “unfair” and even “ridiculous”.
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Councils left in limbo as Levelling Up Fund awards are reviewed by the new Government will receive updates within the next two months, a minister has said.
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Ofsted's new system for grading schools in England will not cause confusion for parents, the prime minister said on Monday after announcing changes.
The practice of issuing an overall one or two-word grade - either Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate - has been scrapped with immediate effect.
Ofsted will continue to inspect schools against the same standards, but will now only issue gradings related to individual aspects of a school's performance.
Sir Keir Starmer rejected the suggestion the new system lacks the simplicity of the old one, and said it would provide parents with a "richer picture" of a what a school does well, and where it requires improvement.
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Council chiefs are demanding the power to impose unlimited tax rises on residents ahead of next month’s Budget, The Telegraph has learnt.
In its submission to the Treasury, the Local Government Association (LGA) will urge Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, to remove the current 5 per cent yearly cap on tax rises.
Senior government sources insist that they have “no plans” to carry out a revaluation of council tax bands, but said any other changes will be decided in the Spending Review.
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Last year, local authorities in England spent £1.6 billion on sending children to independent special schools - sometimes at more than £1 million a place. The majority are privately owned and run on a profit-making basis but a BBC investigation has heard complaints from parents about provision, excessive use of restraint, lack of qualifications for teachers and staff and children making poor academic progress.
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The New Homes Bonus could be expanded to combined authorities to give them an incentive to help the Government achieve its 1.5 million housing target, a think-tank boss has suggested.
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Hundreds of thousands of new or partially built homes will be unblocked by a new "homes accelerator" team, the government has announced.
An experienced team of 15 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Homes England will work across government and local councils to accelerate the buildout of housing schemes the government claims are delayed by planning and red tape.
There is no new funding attached to this announcement and the programme is being supported from existing pots of money, including £6.1m from the planning supersquad budget announced in July 2023 by the previous government.
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The Government is reportedly set to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) for the fifth time. The LGA called for an extension following a survey which showed that 94 percent of councils believed the fund should be continued. Cllr Pete Marland, Chair of the LGA's Economy and Resources Board, said: “Many at-risk households continue to face considerable challenges and councils are deeply concerned that withdrawing the HSF will result in a cliff-edge fall-off in support, just as demand is expected to peak during winter.”
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New analysis from the LGA reveals that 25 per cent of councils are not confident they have sufficient capacity to deliver the Government’s aim of expanding free childcare from September. From next month, working parents will be able to access 15 hours of childcare for children between nine months and three years, however the LGA’s survey found that limited early-years nursery places will leave some parents without care after the summer holidays. Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said access to high-quality early years education and childcare is “crucial for children’s development, giving them the best start in life while enabling parents to work…[however], many councils have significant concerns around capacity, workforce challenges, and support for children with SEND.”
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Pat McFadden, a Cabinet Office Minister, has warned of more “economic pain” to come as the Government prepares to further restrict public spending, it is reported. Decisions such as the restricting of child benefit and the winter fuel allowance were unlikely to be reversed, McFadden said.
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The transport secretary has pledged to back councils that implement low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and 20mph limits, with the new government ‘absolutely determined’ to end the Tories’ ‘culture wars’ approach to transport.
Louise Haigh told the Streets Ahead podcast that a speech by her predecessor Mark Harper, which referenced 15-minute cities, had led to some council officers getting death threats.
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Profiteering and changing needs blamed for huge increases
The amount councils spent on placements at children’s homes has risen by 72% in five years, LGC analysis has found, but sector leaders claim the quality and quantity is not reflected in the price.
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Care providers have called on the Government to reform the hospital discharge process.
A survey of 500 care homes by later life care directory Autumna found 93% wanted the Government to reform the hospital discharge process.
Debbie Harris, founder and managing director of Autumna, which has developed a digital solution to speed up hospital discharge, said: ‘Our findings are a wake-up call to [Prime Minister] Keir Starmer and [health secretary] Wes Streeting that the system is broken and urgently needs reforming.
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Dorset's two main councils are owed more than £45m in council tax arrears from the last three years, a new study has revealed.
Dorset Council and BCP Council were owed £26.8m and £21.4m respectively from bills issued between April 2021 to 2024. As of 1 August, the figure for Dorset Council was down to £23.61m.
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Sir Keir Starmer will use a speech tomorrow to warn it will take a decade to fix the challenges facing the country. It comes as ministers are braced for further cuts ahead of the Budget on October 30 as sticking to a 1 per cent increase in public spending will lead to a cut in some Whitehall departments. It is reported that those affected have already been tasked to find savings.
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A feature explores how devolved transport powers for mayors have boosted bus provision but finds that traffic and costs are still a major hurdle.
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Cornwall Council chief executive Kate Kennally talks to LGC about how devolution can work in a rural area, investing in a spaceport and why its £1.3bn debt is not a problem.
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Rebuilding trust and the resilience of council finances are long-term projects, writes the chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit.
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Derbyshire CC and Derby City Council ended a long-running dispute over the Sinfin energy-from-waste (EfW) plant so the facility can now be completed, LGC’s sister title MRW has reported.
Derbyshire has withdrawn a demand for payment of £94m from the city council to recover its share of the project costs.
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Local authorities in England have spent a total of £1.7bn repurchasing former right-to-buy homes, with £1bn of this spent since 2020, a new analysis has revealed.
Around 8,600 homes in England sold under Right to Buy have been subsequently purchased by local authorities, 5,900 of them since 2020, according to the analysis of freedom of information (FOI) responses by PA Media.
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The leader of Bristol City Council has warned that the local authority is at risk of going bankrupt without urgent support.
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The UK’s fire and rescue services have called for statutory duties to respond to extreme weather events in England.
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said a legal duty would help fire and rescue services provide a ‘coordinated and effective’ response to increasing risks amid the climate emergency.
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An academic report has raised questions about the reliability of Birmingham City Council’s £760m equal pay liability figure and called for an investigation into the decision to issue a section 114.
The Audit Reform Lab (ARL), a collective of academics who investigate auditors, argue that the council’s financial problems were mostly the result of austerity and the ‘disastrous implementation’ of a new Oracle IT system.
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Thurrock Council’s leader has reportedly called for an inquiry into the authority’s investment decisions after a businessman was accused of misusing £150m of council funds.
Thurrock served a High Court lawsuit on Dubai-based businessman Liam Kavanagh and company Rockfire Capital Ltd last week.
The council said it was ‘deliberately misled’ by Mr Kavanagh over the value of investments and that he used £150m to fund his ‘lavish lifestyle’.
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The Government should ‘reduce or eliminate all support' for a number of local authorities where council tax is low, a centre-right think-tank report has suggested.
Onward's chief economist Tim Leunig suggested increasing council tax in these areas and introducing an ‘interim measure of simply abolishing their grant support would clearly improve the fairness of the system'.
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The Local Government Association (LGA) has said it was ‘encouraging’ that the new Government signalled an openness to discussing hybrid council meetings.
Responding to a question on remote meetings earlier this month, local government minister Jim McMahon said the Government was keen to ‘break down barriers that prevent people from seeking to serve their communities’.
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A union has slammed cash-strapped Birmingham City Council over plans to cut the salaries of refuse workers.
Birmingham is set to consult on restructuring its waste operations, including on plans to remove the role of waste recycling and collection officer (WRCO).
Unite warned that the staff could strike over the proposals, which would see them lose an average of £8,000 a year.
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Plans to address a £100m budget gap over four years will be considered by Cheshire East councillors next week.
Potential savings of £59m-£91m have been identified, the local authority said, amid ‘the most challenging set of circumstances’ it has faced since its formation in 2009.
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Birmingham City Council’s exceptional financial support package should be “redrawn and extended” to limit the impact of cuts on services, according to researchers.
Academics from the Audit Reform Lab, based at Sheffield University, have published a report today about the events that led to Birmingham’s first section 114 last year and the government intervention package that followed.
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The top team at the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government has been revealed, more than a month after the government was formed.
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The Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, has said the Government will invest “unprecedented levels of funding” in walking and cycling as a critical part of plans to improve health and inequality. She said a national network of safe cycle routes could cut GP appointments “by hundreds of thousands, if not millions a year”, by helping people incorporate more physical activity into their lives.
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Research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance has found almost 70 per cent of councils are now charging households to dispose of garden waste. It found some councils allowed residents to sort their waste into only two categories – recyclable and non-recyclable – whereas others asked for it to split further.
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Plans to merge 87 local authority pension funds by the Government could “undermine” investment in the north of England, according to Lord Jim O’Neil. The former Treasury adviser cautioned against “a big fund only interested in funding large companies”, at the expense of investing in innovative start-ups, and that the there was a danger the merger would lose the local knowledge and commitment to backing local business in the existing system.
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Economist Tim Leunig – who was behind the Covid furlough scheme – has claimed that “council tax and stamp duty are unfair and unpopular” and should be abolished, instead being replaced with a more proportional scheme. In a paper for the Onward thinktank, Leunig proposes a different system to council tax that would introduce a levy on home values up to £500,000.
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The Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Robert Chote, has called tor increased data sharing between government departments to boost the economy and improve public services.
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Discussions between the Government and Cheshire councils on devolution are set to begin in the coming weeks, it is reported. Options for reforms both with and without the introduction of a new elected mayor are being considered. This follows letters from Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner asking councils for proposals by the end of September.
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The Local Government Association will launch a national recruitment campaign to attract people to work in the sector.
The campaign was co-produced with the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers and local authorities as part of the LGA’s sector support offer, and funded by the government to showcase the variety of careers on offer in the sector.
According to the LGA, more than nine in 10 councils across the country are experiencing staff recruitment and retention difficulties due to rising service demands, highlighting the need to attract more people into the workforce.
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Last month the government opened a consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, which outlined changes it aims to make to the policy to ensure it meets its target of building 1.5 million homes over the next five years.
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Welfare funding at almost three in five councils will not be replaced if an £820m hardship scheme comes to an end in September, the government has been warned.
Councils said the expiry of the Household Support Fund in six weeks’ time would leave vulnerable residents struggling to pay for food, energy and other essentials over the winter.
The Local Government Association has been campaigning for the fund – launched three years ago by the Department for Work and Pensions and administered by councils to directly help those most in need – to be extended.
In a survey carried out by the association, 59% of councils said they would be unable to replace welfare funding lost if the scheme were withdrawn, while a further 11% said they would also be reducing their own discretionary welfare support in the face of intense financial pressures.
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The UK's inflation rate has risen for the first time this year, official figures show. It means overall prices rose by 2.2 per cent in the year to July, up from 2 per cent in June.
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Unite criticised the National Employers for an "incredibly disingenuous" pledge to start a review of the local government pay spine after this year's offer has been agreed.
In a letter to GMB, Unison and Unite, Naomi Cooke, employers' secretary wrote that the current offer of an increase of £1,290 which equates to 5.77% for the lowest paid and 2.5% for those at the top of the pay spine from 1 April 2024 was "full and final". However, the unions had asked for "£3,000 or 10% whichever is higher".
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Councils have warned of "grave concerns" about pressures on their services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), with financial support from a government programme "falling short".
This week North Somerset Council wrote to the education secretary about the "financial crisis" it is facing, while sector bodies told LGC have called for complete reform of the system.
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The TaxPayers Alliance has called for a freeze in council tax next year with figures showing bills have tripled in the past 24 years The LGA said that council tax has been too heavily relied on by central government to increase councils’ core spending power in recent years, and what is ultimately needed is for councils to have “greater long-term funding certainty to protect services and keep bills as low as possible.”
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Council bosses are again urging the Government to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) to avoid an ‘impending cliff-edge’ in support.
In a Local Government Association (LGA) survey, nearly 60% of councils said they would be unable to fund any additional local welfare assistance when the HSF ends next month.
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The Government’s failure to devise a fair funding system for flood defences means wider service cuts for at-risk communities, council bosses have warned.
The District Councils’ Network (DCN) has called for a new system for funding internal drainage boards (IDBs), the bodies that oversee flood alleviation in the lowest-lying land areas.
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North Somerset Council has warned that it might be forced to declare effective bankruptcy unless it receives more financial support for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
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The two local authorities formed after the demise of Northamptonshire CC have agreed on how to split their predecessor's £40m balance sheet.
North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire councils' senior management teams have agreed to broadly split the defunct local authority's final accounts.
It has taken four years to settle the previous county council's assets and liabilities after it was abolished, following it first issuing a section 114 notice in 2018.
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The National Employers have told unions that the pay offer made in May remains “full and final” and urged them to accept it so that work to review the pay spine can start.
In a letter to GMB, Unison and Unite, Naomi Cooke, employers’ secretary, wrote that the current offer is already “difficult to fund in a number of local authorities and anything beyond it would take many more authorities well past their level of affordability”.
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Concern about the state of local roads has reached record levels, new research suggests. More than half of drivers (56 per cent) said the condition and maintenance of roads for which councils are responsible was one of their top motoring concerns, a survey commissioned by the RAC indicated, up seven percentage points from 2023. LGA transport spokesperson Cllr Claire Holland said: “Limited resources and a £16.3 billion local roads repair backlog means councils have had to prioritise road repairs according to local circumstances. Inflation and ongoing pressures from other council services mean that money for fixing potholes is constrained.” Cllr Holland also called on the Government to commit to maintain the previous administration’s spending plans for local highways maintenance, alongside the need for long-term funding certainty, to help better support resurfacing schemes.
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Councils are to be given the power to compulsorily and cheaply buy up green belt land under plans by ministers to fulfil their pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by 2030. In a bid to prevent landowners from cashing in on sites which would previously have been ineligible for development, the Government is preparing to cap the amount of profit that they can make from the sale of their land.
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More than 17,000 shops are at risk of closure over the next decade unless the Labour government overhauls the business rates regime, the head of Sainsbury’s and the general secretary of the biggest retail union have warned. Simon Roberts, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, and Paddy Lillis, the general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, say that tens of thousands of retail jobs could disappear because of a sharp rise in business rates bills.
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Any spare money left over at the Budget will be spent on Labour’s five “missions”, Cabinet ministers have been warned. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones has officially started the process of the spending review which will determine the budget of each government department over the next three years, which asks them to identify reforms which will drive down costs, including by using more efficient technology.
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A “volunteer army” of 10,000 “pothole busters” are using an app to produce the first pothole map of Britain. The LGA said there was a £16.3 billion backlog of road repairs.
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Cabinet ministers have reportedly been told to search for cost-cutting reforms and prepare for difficult decisions over spending, as the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her team formally begin the process of compiling a review of public spending.
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The chancellor has been urged to make a ‘concerted effort’ to break down barriers to investment so the local government pension scheme can boost growth.
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The local government sector has united to call for urgent action following a surge in the number of homeless families.
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Care minister Stephen Kinnock has reaffirmed Labour's commitment to a National Care Service.
Speaking after chancellor Rachel Reeves scrapped delayed care charging reforms along with plans for an adult social care training and development fund, Kinnock said Labour remained committed to supporting the social care workforce in the long term.
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Suffolk County Council has initiated legal proceedings in a bid to secure ‘appropriate funding’ after the new Government approved a large-scale solar farm.
The authority sent a pre-action protocol letter to energy secretary Ed Miliband in the first step towards a potential judicial review.
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Ministers will be ordered to come up with ways to make major savings in the coming months as part of Rachel Reeves’ Budget, it is reported. The Chancellor has claimed to have discovered a £22 billion hole in the public finances for this year which must be filled by cuts, higher taxes or more government borrowing, with the Ministry of Defence and Department for Transport among the Whitehall departments which have already begun the process of cutting costs.
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Somerset Council has teamed up with Homes2Inspire, part of a charity called Shaw Trust, to open a total of 10 ‘family-style’ homes for children in care, with seven due to be up and running by September. It is a departure from the trend seen across the sector in the past few decades, which has seen fewer council-run residential children's homes and more reliance on private providers.
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More larger homes must be built in the social rented sector to combat ‘worrying’ levels of overcrowding, a leading thinktank has said.
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Newly published draft statements of accounts for three financial years will contribute to “more robust” reporting in the future at Woking Borough Council, its political finance lead has said.
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Tweaking debt definitions might allow for billions of additional borrowing for the new government, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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Councils could have saved more than £700m in 2023/24 if they had paid the same rate for energy as government departments, a survey has claimed.
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Sally Burlington has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass).
Currently the deputy chief executive and the director of policy at the Local Government Association (LGA), Ms Burlington will be starting her new post in November.
She has been at the LGA for 12 years working as the head of programmes and the head of policy. Previously she worked at the Department for Education for five years managing the Sure Start and early intervention programmes and as a divisional manager for children in care and adoption.
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The government is being urged to expand a programme that has been developed over eight years and enables children in care to build support networks, which saves councils money in the long-term.
Charity Family Rights Group developed the Lifelong Links programme in 2017 to support young people in care to build links with family members and others. Last month the Department for Education announced £30m for 23 councils to provide the support, this included 11 that had already been delivering and 12 new councils.
But the funding will come to an end next March and those involved are calling for longer-term funding to be provided universally so that all young people in care can benefit.
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The number of people who believe they are getting value for money from local authorities is falling, according to a survey for the Local Government Association (LGA).
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Newham LBC has warned it may be pushed to seek exceptional financial support from the Government due to housing cost pressures.
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Council tax arrears have soared to £6bn a year, a sign that the collection process is ‘failing local authorities and taxpayers alike’, according to a report published today.
The total has leapt from about £2.5bn a decade ago, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
The think-tank’s report calls for a ‘more proportionate’ approach to debt collection, with a clearer distinction between those who cannot pay and those who refuse to.
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Council spending on hotels has tripled in the past five years, LGC can reveal, as housing authorities are increasingly forced to use places like Travelodge to house homeless households.
Experts have blamed systemic failures in housing policy and said the current situation is far from sustainable, warning living in hotels can be "destabilising and frightening" for children.
Data provided to LGC by Tussell, a market intelligence provider, shows that in 2019 councils spent £81.6m on hotels but by last year this had risen to £241.5m, an increase of 196%. Across the whole five years they spent £780m.
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Ministers must work with the sector to co-produce their social care priorities, writes the director of policy & communications at the County Councils Network.
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The Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, has backed a cross-party approach to fix social care as he accused all major political parties of “collective failure” on the issue. Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe, Mr Streeting claimed successive governments had failed to address deep problems in the sector and that MPs from all sides could work on a solution together.
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Labour is reportedly preparing to end the use of large military sites to house asylum seekers and will instead house migrants around the country to reduce pressure on local services.
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Childcare providers have voiced alarm that they are struggling to recruit staff to meet demand from parents expecting a local place, ahead of a widespread extension of free provision. Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary, she was determined to make sure parents get what was promised to them this year, despite the major challenges.
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Britain needs a mandatory national insurance programme to fund social care, a former Downing Street adviser and crossbench peer has said. Baroness Cavendish, who led the Downing Street policy unit under David Cameron, said the UK should follow the example of Germany and Japan, where people contribute to social care through payroll deductions.
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The chancellor’s decision to scrap the social care funding reforms, despite now health and social care secretary Wes Streeting’s pre-election assurances that they would go ahead if Labour won was not perhaps surprising, given the dismal state of the public finances, and that money earmarked for reform had been siphoned off by the last government to prop up the current system.
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Leaders have praised the government's move to allow councils to use section 106 contributions with right to buy receipts to build new social housing.
Angela Rayner announced this week that for a trial period of two years, local authorities will be empowered to use funds from council house sales and contributions from developers to build more social housing.
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A statutory review has found the overall cost of the Local Government Pension Scheme is above its target, but the scheme advisory board has decided not to recommend any changes to benefits as a result.
The advisory board has to conduct a scheme cost assessment every four years to “assess the overall cost of the scheme and the proportions of that cost being met by scheme employers and members”.
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The solutions for cleaning up the mess of local audit are considered a step in the right direction, but challenges remain, writes LGC chief reporter Caitlin Webb.
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Paul Dossett from Grant Thornton outlines the results of the firm’s recent report on councils’ annual accounts, highlighting the areas where authorities can make improvements to mitigate the growing sector challenges ahead.
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Commentators examine the challenges facing Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she prepares her Budget for October 30, describing the financial instability of local government as a "ticking timebomb". They reference the LGA's recent analysis showing councils in England face a funding gap of more than £6.2 billion over the next two years.
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Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has vowed to get a "grip on the problems" in special needs education as independent analysis shows increasing demand is leading to a £3.2 billion black hole in council finances. The Department for Education has upgraded the threat to the overall stability of councils to "critical" as a result.
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A major new report into workplace wellbeing has revealed that the ‘hidden costs’ of presenteeism are costing UK organisations £25bn a year. The IPPR research showed that the cost of lost productivity since 2018 has risen £30bn - and only £5bnof that was down to sick days, with the majority accounted for by poor in-work performance.
Employees now lose the equivalent of 44 days’ productivity on average due to working through sickness, up from 35 days in 2018, and lose a further 6.7 days taking sick leave, up from 3.7 days in 2018, says the report. And that compares poorly with other countries. According to the IPPR, “Workers in the UK are among the least likely to take sick days, especially compared to other OECD and European countries. However, they are more likely to persevere at work through sickness, which can have a productivity cost.” ??
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The Bank of England's governor said a decision to cut interest rates is "an important moment in time" but warned people not to expect a sharp fall in the coming months. Rates were lowered to 5 per cent from 5.25 per cent on Thursday, marking the first cut since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
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A new report from the Institute for Government has outlined how the approach to recent spending reviews is not capable of delivering on the government’s goals.
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The government is "keen" to work with councils to engage in an "evidence based discussion" on the merits of remote meetings, the local government minister has said.
Last year, the previous Conservative government rejected an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 that would have enabled councils to conduct formal council meetings remotely.
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There should be two youth workers and four youth support workers for every secondary school catchment area, according to the National Youth Agency.
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The Government must put forward a new funding package for social care with a promise to increase funding yearly in line with rising costs, council leaders have said following the Chancellor’s announcement earlier this week to scrap a proposed cap on social care costs due to be introduced in 2025. In response to the plans to scrap the cap, Cllr David Fothergill, Chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board said: “We recognise that Government faces difficult choices on competing priorities with limited budgets, which is why we want to work closely in partnership with Government on reform plans. Local government is a willing partner on all aspects of reform and stands ready to share its expertise and discuss options with the Government.”
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There are many problems in store for the new government if it wants to fix a broken local government system, writes the vice chair of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities and Labour Nottingham City Council councillor.
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The proposed mandatory housebuilding targets "feel like a real blow to local democracy", areas affected by higher targets have warned.
A proposed new method was announced on Tuesday as part of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which will see most authorities expected to meet increased housing targets.
West Berkshire's deputy leader and portfolio holder for planning and housing Denise Gaines (Lib Dem) said that the proposed 114% increase "is rather a bombshell" and it "does feel like a real blow to local democracy".
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Interim chief at Southampton City Council, Andrew Travers, said trying to cut local government finances further would be counterproductive for a government attempting to drive growth and stabilise public services.
Speaking to The MJ, Travers said: ‘They [Labour] made a big mistake in ruling out local government finance reform.
‘If you want local authorities to fill their role on growth, which is desperately needed, you do have to sort out the fundamentals of the current mess in the system and then you also need to develop some more tax base.'
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The government’s proposals to “overhaul” the planning system to deliver more housing has been largely welcomed by the sector, although professionals warn that the fundamental issue of financing the delivery of more social and affordable homes remains.
This week, the government set out a flurry of proposals to help achieve an ambitious strategy to deliver 1.5m more homes. Proposals included, giving all councils in England mandatory housing targets, reviewing the greenbelt to identify the “grey belt” and ensuring that every area has a local housing plan.
Tracie Langley, housing lead for the Society of County Treasurers, told Room151 that the government’s proposals show an “understanding of the complex issues facing housebuilders and local authorities” as well as “start to help remove some of those barriers”.
While the government’s proposals do include flexibilities for the use of Right to Buy receipts and section 106 contributions, the professionals warn that these are “unlikely to bridge the funding gap on their own” and could be “counterproductive”.
“These flexibilities may be helpful, however the devil is always in the detail,” Langley argued.
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Local authorities should be given the power to set council tax rates as part of a major shake-up to make local taxation fairer and more sustainable, a leading thinktank has said.
Centre for Cities said the Government’s commitment to a new era of devolution provided the opportunity to address the lack of fiscal autonomy which lay at the heart of councils’ financial fragility.
It called for the power to set council tax rates to be devolved to local and combined authorities to ensure levels are proportionate to the local area, instead of being anchored at band D on a national basis.
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Council chiefs are attempting to push fiscal devolution onto the desks of new ministers as the Government outlined a £22bn public finance black hole.
Council chiefs are attempting to push fiscal devolution onto the desks of new ministers as the Government outlined a £22bn public finance black hole.
Senior officers' group Solace called for ministers and officials to consider which taxes could be localised in part or in full as part of a ‘rethink' of the entire local government finance system.
It comes as chancellor Rachel Reeves this week announced billions of pounds in cuts, with Government departments told to find savings of at least £3bn, including by stopping non-essential spending on consultancy and communications.
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The guidance now includes the increased flexibilities on the use of RTB receipts which were announced on 30 July 2024 for the two financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26:
- The maximum permitted contribution from RTB receipts to replacement affordable housing has increased from 50% to 100%.
- RTB receipts will be permitted to be used with section 106 contributions.
- The cap on the percentage of replacements delivered as acquisitions each year (currently 50%) has been lifted.
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Angela Rayner has announced changes to planning rules in England to help deliver on the Government’s promise of 1.5million new homes by 2029. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government said that local housing targets would become mandatory again and announced plans to make building easier on low quality green belt land, reclassifying it as “grey-belt”. Cllr Clair Holland, the LGA’s Housing Spokesperson, said that “Local government stands ready to work with national government on their detailed delivery plans to ensure practical solutions to these long-standing problems are found”, in a statement which was picked up by the Mail and the Evening Standard.
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Householder planning application fees could more than double under government proposals to ensure they cover councils' costs of determining applications.
The government is also seeking views on whether to allow councils to set their own planning fees to reflect their own specific costs.
The proposed increase in householder fees, outlined in a consultation on the suggested reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, comes after double-digit increases last December still left councils facing a £262m shortfall.
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A new definition of the grey belt to "identify land with high sustainable development potential" has been announced as part of proposed changes to the planning system.
Earlier this afternoon deputy prime minister Angela Rayner outlined changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to ensure the government meets its housing target of 1.5 million homes over the next parliament.
This included a requirement for local authorities to review their green belt if needed to meet housing targets and prioritise local quality grey belt land.
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The Government should devolve the power to fix council tax rates to local authorities, a think-tank has urged.
Centre for Cities suggested local authorities would be able to agree rates that were proportionate to their area and ensure council tax was more ‘progressive'.
Chief executive Andrew Carter said: ‘Government should take the opportunity to give places more power over how taxes are collected locally at the same time as it plans to widen devolution of transport and budgeting powers.
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Councils believe they can manage the increase in demand for school places after Labour's removal of VAT exemptions on private schools.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week confirmed that VAT will be charged on private school fees from 1 January, with parents prevented from avoiding the tax by paying fees in advance.
Private schools are expected to hike fees, which could price families out of the sector.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank has estimated a 40,000 reduction in numbers attending private schools, with shadow education secretary Damian Hinds warning that Labour's policy could lead to fewer places for pupils squeezed out of the sector.
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Most local authorities will see their housing targets increase under the government’s proposed new method for determining how many homes should be build in each area.
A proposed new method was announced yesterday as part of changes to the national planning policy framework.
More than 200 councils would see their housing targets increase under the proposed method, when compared with the current method. Some 63 would be expected to facilitate at least double the number of new homes than under the current system.
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The government will no longer be offering £2,035 per individual towards their care qualifications after dropping the Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund.
This scheme would have allowed adult social care employers to reimburse care skills funding and revalidation funding for this financial year.
The previous government had promised to spend £50m supporting 37,000 individuals to enroll into a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification by March 2025, with a digital claims service due to go live this summer.
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Experts have said the government must "commit to a new approach" after the chancellor dropped plans for a cap on the costs for individuals.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced this week that adult social care charging reforms will not go ahead in a move the Treasury said would save up to £1bn in 2025-26.
Charging reforms were due to be implemented in October 2025, after being delayed previously by two years.
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The government has promised to “improve how different tiers of government work together” in a major announcement about public spending.
The pledge is included in new government’s Fixing the foundations document that sets out its audit of public spending in 2024-25.
A chapter on reforming the public sector and welfare systems says priority themes for the upcoming spending review include "greater focus on long-termism, investment in prevention, managing demand, and increasing devolution and local integration of services".
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Adult social care charging reform will not go ahead after the chancellor accused the previous government of an “unforgivable” inheritance.
Rachel Reeves told the Commons this afternoon the Conservative party had “covered up” the extent of problems for the public finances as she set out a raft of measures to deal with a projected in-year overspend of £22bn.
All government departments have been told to look for cost savings of 2% ahead of a Budget in the autumn and a spending review.
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The government has revealed a new backstop date for all outstanding external audits up to and including the financial year 2022-23.
In a written statement this morning, local government minister Jim McMahon revealed that these external audits must be published by 13 December.
The deadline for financial year 2023-24 will be two months later on 28 February 2025.
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The Local Government Association has said it will “continue to make the case” for additional funding to enable higher pay for local government staff, after the government promised other public sector workers pay rises.
Two of the three unions representing local government workers have rejected this year’s pay offer and are considering strike action.
Unison has announced it will ballot staff for strike action and Unite is expected to take similar action.
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Worcestershire CC intends to "fire and rehire" more than 140 workers despite government plans to ban the practice, Unison has said.
The council has said it will dismiss staff from their 37-hour-a-week contracts and rehire them on 35-hour deals, which amounts to a 5.4% pay cut the union has claimed.
Unison said that many of the employees are approaching retirement, and the changes will mean they will receive less from their pensions when they retire.
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Sir Tony Redmond has urged the government to give "more attention" to his audit recommendations.
Speaking at the the Public Finance Live conference earlier this month, Sir Tony said "transparency and accessibility of financial reporting" in local government has been given "too little attention".
The government is expected to make an announcement later today about its plans to address the audit backlog.
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Chancellor savages previous administration’s fiscal management, pledging: “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it”
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Carers allowance “cliff edge” crisis forcing unpaid carers to avoid work and turn down promotions as stringent DWP rules.
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The LGA is calling for councils to be given five-year pots of funding by central government in new deals to build homes under Labour. It is calling on the Government to scrap the current system, which sees councils applying to a number of different funds, and give regions greater freedom to kick-start building projects. The call comes ahead of an announcement from Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, which will overhaul planning rules in an attempt to drive house-building. Cllr Claire Holland, LGA Housing spokesperson, said: “Over the last 30 years, growth in the housing stock has stagnated and the number of housing completions is failing to keep up with demand. The only way to solve this country’s housing crisis is by giving councils the powers and resources to build more of the genuinely affordable homes our communities desperately need.”
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BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour asks how the SEND education system for children with special educational needs and disabilities can be fixed. It follows the publication of a report by the LGA and County Councils Network which warns that the current system is failing children and is too adversarial. The report calls for urgent reform of the system.
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Around 10 million pensioners are to lose their winter fuel payments under new plans announced by the Chancellor. From this autumn, people not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive the payments. A planned cap on social care costs and several major rail and road projects have also been scrapped. Rachel Reeves said during her speech in Parliament yesterday that the next Budget would be on 30 October.
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The Government has said that VAT will be charged on private school fees from 1 January and that parents will be unable to avoid the tax by paying in advance.
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The government will consult on reform of the right to buy, and has given councils greater flexibility when using right to buy receipts, the deputy prime minister has announced.
Angela Rayner also confirmed that £450m of the local authority housing fund would be given to councils to build 2,000 new homes.
Labour pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the course of the next parliament as part of its manifesto and speaking today in the House of Commons Ms Rayner outlined changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF) to ensure the government meets its target.
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The chancellor is set to announce immediate cuts worth billions of pounds, aimed at plugging a gap in the public finances, when she addresses Parliament on Monday.
Rachel Reeves’ plans are expected to include the cancellation of some road and rail projects, a reduction in spending on external consultants and a drive to cut public sector waste.
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Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, is expected to announce tomorrow new mandatory housebuilding targets alongside a rewritten National Planning Policy Framework to make it easier for councils to build on grey belt and poor quality greenbelt land. Labour plans to build 300,000 new homes a year over the next five years.
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The Times has compiled data to chart the obstacles facing the NHS, criminal justice and local government ahead of a speech from the Chancellor later today which will outline a “black hole” in public services. Data from local government shows a 22 per cent reduction in real terms spending power from 2010 and rising spending on statutory services.
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Last week Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the Government would “move as quickly as we can” to impose VAT on independent school fees. A report published last week by the LGA and the County Councils Network pointed out: “At present mainstream schools and settings do not have the resources, capacity or support they need to include children and young people with SEND as well as they could.”
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Sir Keir Starmer confirmed in the King’s Speech that Labour would remove the 20 per cent VAT exemption for private school fees. Ministers have said they expect the change to raise £1.6 billion a year and to fund an extra 6,500 teachers. However, research by HM Revenue & Customs in January has shown that in the most extreme case the policy would bring in far less. In the worst-case scenario, HMRC planned for 17 per cent of private pupils, about 94,000, moving to state schools. This would see the policy raise just £650 million extra revenue in 2025-26 because of the extra cost of funding children in the state system.
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The Government is expected to agree to above-inflation pay rises for public sector workers in the coming days, amid concerns over the costs of not settling, Sky News understands. Independent pay review bodies have already recommended the above-inflation figure to ministers for teachers and nurses of about 5.5 per cent to keep them in line with increases in the private sector, reports have suggested.
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Local government minister Jim McMahon has said it is down to the Government to make devolution ‘attractive enough' for councils
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City Hall has said the controversial expansion of Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across the whole of London is ‘working better than expected’ according to new data.
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The Government will release a promised consultation on its updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) tomorrow.
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Social media campaigns costing almost £500,000 ‘did not represent value for money’, a report from Essex County Council's audit, governance and standards committee has said.
The report highlights a number of Facebook groups which the committee concluded ‘did not represent good value for money’.
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Councils are calling on the new government for a reform of the right to buy scheme, which is “undermining” efforts to address the housing crisis.
Earlier this month, an interim report from the 20 largest council landlords was published, which outlined the struggles authorities are facing with their portfolio of homes.
Securing the Future of Council Housing, which was written by Toby Lloyd and Rose Grayson on behalf of Southwark LBC with nineteen other large council landlords, makes five key recommendations:
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The Care and Support Alliance (CSA) has analysed NHS England data on the number of care requests accepted by local authorities. It suggests there is a huge variation in acceptances for social care. Across England, the CSA said the lowest rate of refused requests in a local authority was 12 per cent, while the highest was 85 per cent. The LGA warned against examining data without an understanding of local context. Cllr David Fothergill, social care spokesperson for the LGA, added: “This analysis rightly comes with a call on national government to act urgently to ensure people can access the care and support they need.”
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The body responsible for regulating NHS and social care services in England is not fit for purpose, the Health Secretary has said. Wes Streeting's intervention comes after an independent review found significant failings at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), according to headline findings released by the Government. The CQC said it accepted the findings in full.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will reveal a Treasury audit of public spending pressures inherited by the new government, which could see claims of a "black hole" worth tens of billions of pounds. The Chancellor said the statement to Parliament on Monday would show “honesty” about the scale of the challenge faced by Labour.
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The government is exploring the “art of the possible” when it comes to next year’s local government finance settlement, local government minister Jim McMahon has said, as he revealed he would be in favour of a limit on council borrowing.
Speaking at an event in central London today, Mr McMahon said he recognised that many councils are “underfunded” and there was not enough money in the system.
“The question then is how do you move money around the system. Whatever the problem is, how do you distribute it as fairly as possible?”
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An audit of public spending pressures will see claims of a "black hole" worth tens of billions of pounds by the new government. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she would give a statement to Parliament on Monday showing “honesty” about the scale of the challenge faced by the new Labour government.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said it was not credible that the government had now looked at the books and found problems to be more severe than expected, given how many organisations had pointed out that most public services were now performing "considerably worse" than they were pre-Covid.
While the BBC understands there will be no tax policy announcements on Monday, the implication of the audit is that the Treasury will spend the summer trying to find extra savings, or extra taxation revenue, to fill this “black hole”. A more optimistic economic outlook from the independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility would also help improve some tricky trade-offs.
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A planned devolution deal for Norfolk remains on ice for the time being, as the county council postponed a decision on whether to switch to a directly elected leader model.
In 2022, Norfolk CC agreed a level three devolution deal in principle with Rishi Sunak’s government, including investment funding of £20m a year. But Sir Keir Starmer’s new government has yet to confirm whether it intends to proceed with the current plans.
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Some council internal auditors may be holding back on raising serious financial concerns through fear of losing their jobs, new research suggests.
The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) surveyed 168 of heads of internal audit at councils across the UK.
More than a third (35%) of respondents believed it was likely that their council would have financial difficulties in 2024-25 that would “impact significantly” on delivering statutory services.
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The Government’s net zero and economic growth ambitions could be ‘derailed by a lack of clarity’ on decarbonising older buildings, a report has argued.
The London Property Alliance (LPA) said there was little guidance for local authorities on how to weigh up the relative economic, social and environmental impacts of retrofit and redevelopment schemes.
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Councils in the south west of England that have increased council tax on second homes are missing out on £55m of income due to the ‘broken’ business rates system, real estate experts warn.
Around 150 local authorities have indicated they plan to charge second homeowners double or triple council tax to discourage second home ownership during a housing crisis.
However, Colliers has found that this policy is backfiring because many homeowners have responded by ‘flipping’ their properties, so they are classed as small businesses.
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Billions of pounds intended to reform social care have instead been diverted to propping up the current system.
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The number of care homes in England has decreased by nearly 1,500 since 2018, according to a study by the House of Commons Library.
There were 16,020 care homes six years ago, but now there are only 14,565.
The research, which was carried out by the Liberal Democrats, also revealed that 73% of constituencies have fewer care homes.
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The Government does not know whether the funding it allocates to councils to fix the pothole-riddled local road system is being used effectively, auditors warn.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has provided between £1.1 and £1.6bn of capital funding each year to local authorities and has set out plans for additional funding through to 2034.
However, according to a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO), the DfT does not have a good enough understanding of the condition of local roads and does not use the limited data it does have to allocate its funding as effectively as possible.
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Hampshire County Council’s balance sheet resources fell by more than £260m in the previous financial year following pension contributions payout.
According to the authority’s Annual Treasury Outturn Report, between March 2023 and 2024 Hampshire’s balance sheet resources reduced by £265m.
The “main driver” of the resource balance reduction was a payment of £264.9m representing three years’ worth of pension contributions, with other reasons being a decrease in reserves and an increase in the dedicated schools grant deficit (DSG), the report explained.
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Local government could face annual spending cuts averaging 2.4% by 2029, with services set to deteriorate as a result, a new report has warned.
A study by the Institute for Government and Nuffield Foundation has described the Government’s inheritance on public services as ‘extremely precarious.’
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Labour will have to return planning department funding back to 2010 levels to achieve its ambition of 1.5 million homes built over the next Parliament, a network of councils has said.
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Councils face ‘unsustainable financial pressure’ due to record levels of homelessness, according to a public spending watchdog.
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Council chiefs have called for a delay in the introduction of the cap on adult social care costs, describing it as ‘unfunded’ and claiming it will be ‘impossible’ to implement by October next year.
A new analysis by Newton for the County Councils Network (CCN) has found the costs of the new cap on care and more generous means-test announced in 2020 have increased by a third and now totals £30bn over the next decade.
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Following our recent general election, the future of the UK’s public sector is now in the hands of a new government. Public services touch the lives of everyone, every day, from social care and schools through to bin collections and the criminal justice system.
Today, we spend approximately £12.5k per person per year on public services in England (and greater still across the other nations). Yet it has been cracking – for some time now – under the pressures associated with rising demand and higher costs, often attributed to the pandemic, Ukraine War, fiscal and inflationary pressures.
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Rachel Reeves has told councils to pool their pension funds to fuel growth. The Local Government Pension Scheme is one of the largest pension funds in the world, with assets of £360 billion. Pooling the funds would make it easier to invest at scale, the Chancellor stated ahead of a meeting with pension bosses today, to help fund large infrastructure projects.
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A record 487,000 people have received a dementia diagnosis, new NHS figures show, enabling them to access treatment and social care. Despite the high figure, many older patients are never properly assessed due to lack of services, with estimates putting the number of people with dementia but without a diagnosis as up to 240,000.
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Thousands of second home owners will pay over £10,000 in council tax this year, according to analysis by the Telegraph. Over 140 councils are now implementing the double tax, which kicks in on second homes left empty for a year. An LGA spokesperson said: “There is a desperate need for more affordable housing across the country and councils need all options possible to ensure a supply of homes for rent and sale that meets local needs. Charging a council tax premium for long-term empty and second homes is one way of encouraging owners to bring these properties back into permanent use.”
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The chancellor has reportedly hinted that she may give public sector workers above-inflation pay rises this summer. In an interview from No 11 Downing Street, she said: "I really value public service workers, in our schools, in our hospitals, in our police as well. There is a cost to not settling, a cost of further industrial action, and a cost in terms of the challenge we face recruiting."
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A new body will provide strategic oversight of the post-16 skills system, bringing together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions, the Government said this week.
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Long-term integrated funding settlements and an end to the “Dragon’s Den approach of bidding wars between local authorities” have been pledged by the deputy prime minister.
Angela Rayner, who is also secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, laid out Labour’s plans to “reset our relationship with local government and rebuild its foundations” during a speech at the LGA Councillors’ Forum yesterday (18 July).
She pledged to provide long-term funding, giving councils “the flexibility to spend it where it is needed”.
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Abandoned Conservative policies for fixing local government finance should remain on the table, the new chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has said.
While he suggested Labour was unlikely to take on plans for the long-promised fair funding review and business rates retention as they stand, Owen Mapley said: ‘I don't think we have the luxury of ignoring any of the options.
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The care sector will need 540,000 additional social care posts by 2040 to cope with the aging population, the adult social care workforce body, Skills for Care, estimates.
Skills for Care’s new Workforce Strategy for adult social care in England warns that the sector still has a vacancy rate around three times higher than the wider economy.
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Whitehall has claimed it would be too costly to answer the same questions councils have been asked ahead of tomorrow’s productivity plans deadline.
Departments, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), offered a string of excuses as they refused to answer the questions ministers had posed to councils after The MJ submitted a series of Freedom of Information (FoI) Act requests.
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UK inflation held steady in June as price rises across the country stayed at the target level for the second month running. Inflation rose at 2 per cent in the year to June, partly driven by hotel prices going up, according to the latest official figures.
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A Tobacco and Vapes Bill was announced in the King’s speech, continuing the previous government’s aim to progressively ban smoking.
The bill would increase age limit of tobacco purchasing and crack down on the marketing of nicotine products to children,
Trading standards would be strengthened to ensure compliance is met. A document published alongside the speech said this will cut public healthcare costs by £1.9bn per year, reducing hospital admissions and GP visits as a result.
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More powers for local authorities over children’s education have been proposed by the government in the King’s Speech today.
A Children's Wellbeing Bill has been announced by King Charles III as a means to "raise educational standards and break down barriers to opportunity".
If this bill is passed, local authorities would be responsible for a register of home schooled children and have more control over decisions on school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
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The Government has put fiscal stability in the form of a Budget Responsibility Bill at the heart of the King's Speech.
The new bill will ensure a beefed-up role for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The OBR will be handed responsibility under the bill for independently assessing all significant tax and spending changes.
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The Labour Government will deliver its aim of building 1.5 million houses by ‘modernising planning committees.’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has used his first King’s Speech to confirm the Government’s ambition to ‘get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing.’
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The new Labour Government has set out a widespread plan for devolution and economic growth in its Parliamentary timetable, with central diktat reserved for planning proposals.
A much-trailed shift towards devolution has already seen deputy prime minister Angela Rayner write to those without deals earlier this week, asking them to join a ‘devolution revolution' and offering deals for combined or combined county authorities.
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Vulnerable people face being denied basic preventive social care at home, due to a wave of rapid discharges from hospital that is taking up resources, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has warned following its annual survey of England’s 153 council social care directors. The survey also found only one in 10 directors were fully confident their budgets would meet their statutory duties.
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Councils in “devolution deserts” are being invited to join forces to take on more responsibilities over policy areas including transport, skills and planning, as part of a major transferral of powers out of Westminster. Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, is writing today to all council leaders without a devolution deal to tell them the Government’s door is open to areas that want to take on extra powers for the first time
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Section 151 officers give their views on the prospect of a return to multi-year settlements
Finance directors have warned against the government breaking its promise to provide multi-year financial settlements and urged ministers to go further.
Speaking to LGC during the Public Finance Live conference last week, finance directors called for settlements to be finalised earlier in the year and for larger sums overall.
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The Leader of Somerset Council has urged the Prime Minister to take action to prioritise local government.
This comes as the council’s executive held a discussion on many of the key issues that highlight the challenges that local authorities face, with the Council Leader pledging to stand up for the people of his county.
Last November the county council declared a financial emergency, with this leading to a number of ‘unprecedented’ decisions. This includes today’s Executive decision to devolve certain assets and services to Yeovil Town Council with the aim of reducing costs and consulting on potential changes to the Council Tax Reduction scheme.
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The government has announced that Wednesday’s King’s Speech will be used to put economic growth at the heart of its legislative agenda.
With the speech coming at the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday, departments across government are working on over 35 bills to deliver on ambitious priorities. These priorities are to be built on foundations of economic security, as this supports growth to improve prosperity around the country.
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Integrated care systems (ICSs) are showing ‘signs of progress’ but increasing pressures on health and care services could derail the positive gains, health think tank warns.
A new report by The King’s Fund found signs that ICSs had some successes in organising local partners around a shared purpose, scaling and spreading success, and using resources more effectively.
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Hints of a new royal commission are unlikely to be welcomed by expert opinion, writes an independent care and health specialist.
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A new devolution framework will be published “in due course” with the government expecting to move away from a “deals-based” approach.
Communities secretary Angela Rayner wrote to unitary and county councils today inviting them to submit proposals for devolution by the end of September.
The letter, seen by LGC, reveals that the government expects devolution to involve new combined or combined county authorities and that some powers will be “reserved for institutions with directly elected leaders, such as mayoral combined authorities”.
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The GMB has split the union response on sector pay after coming out in support of the offer from employers for this year.
Sharon Wilde, GMB National Officer, said: ‘GMB members have voted to accept the local government pay offer for 2024/25.
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Georgia Gould, the new Cabinet Office Minister, has said the new government will bring “new era of partnership” between local, central, and regional government. The new MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, who was previously leader of Camden Council, said having councils bid against each other for government funding led to a “massive waste” of resources. She added: “If we work differently together, we can save a huge amount of money and improve public services, there's a massive opportunity.”
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There has been an increase in councils implementing a surcharge on second homes, it is reported, following changes in April which allowed unoccupied properties to be subject to 100 per cent council tax following one year of being vacant instead of two. The LGA said that charging more for second homes is one way of encouraging owners to bring these properties back into permanent use.
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Chris McDonald, the newly elected MP for Stockton North, has said that regional mayors “should be as powerful as in London”. Speaking to the BBC’s Politics North programme, he said the Government would devolve more powers to regional mayors, but there had to be value for money for taxpayers and better accountability.
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The Government unveils plans for a “rooftop revolution” today which will see millions more homes fitted with solar panels in order to bring down domestic energy bills and tackle the climate crisis. Before Wednesday’s King’s Speech, which will include legislation for setting up the new publicly owned energy company GB Energy, ministers are working with the building industry to make it easier to buy new homes with panels installed, or install them on existing ones.
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An ambitious cross-party taskforce into the future of social care is being planned by Labour to create a “broad consensus” on fixing a failing system, it is reported. Baroness Casey of Blackstock has been lined up to lead a royal commission into social care which is expected to include representatives from the main political parties.
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The Chancellor is set to announce the creation of a new council of economic advisers to help guide the Government’s “national mission” of expanding the economy. Rachel Reeves will appoint academics and senior advisors to the council, which will help to inform the Government’s growth policies.
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A revised projected financial deficit of £83.6m by 2027/28 at East Sussex County Council means the authority will likely not be able to provide some basic services without further government support.
The bleak financial outlook has been outlined in the latest report of East Sussex’s cabinet and in the authority’s draft of a productivity plan that all councils were asked to produce by 19 July.
Having already introduced a programme of cost-cutting measures, East Sussex said the scope for more efficiency gains is “very limited and will go only a small way towards bridging the budget gap”. At the same time, total strategic reserves are projected to be £16.7m by 2029, excluding any draws required to set a balanced budget in 2025/26 or beyond.
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Devolution could be a way to help reverse the “zombie state” created as a result of the long-term funding crisis in local government.
But while further devolution is no ‘silver bullet’, if done right it could be part of the solution to local government’s funding problems, according to a panel discussion on the topic at Public Finance Live, which is being held in Manchester this week (10-11 July).
Paul Kissack, group chief executive at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, offered context by describing the “bleak” current picture of England being “in the midst of an enormous experiment” of centralisation, which has reached “quite an extreme point”. He noted that “more and more power and control has moved from the local area to the central area” and “powers have been removed”
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Reducing PWLB borrowing costs for council housing as part of a new “fair and sustainable” HRA model will help secure the future of England’s council homes.
A group of 20 of England’s largest council landlords have called for a ‘decade of renewal’ starting with emergency action this year and followed up with sustained investment to achieve that aim.
The councils – which include Southwark, Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham and Dudley – have jointly published five solutions for the new Labour government in an interim report.
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Owen Mapley, CIPFA’s new chief executive officer (CEO), has laid out the “three core areas” of his “vision” for the organisation: focusing on members; understanding CIPFA’s proposition; and combining the “now and the next”.
Speaking on day two of the Public Finance Live conference in Manchester, Mapley highlighted that he is looking to “refresh the member value proposition” in explaining his first core area. Later on, he told delegates that it is “time to forge a new path”.
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A place in residential care costs around £60,000 a year, according to carehome.co.uk. It said that people can end up spending a lifetime of savings on care costs. The LGA said that “the adult social care sector remains in a precarious position with overstretched budgets, significant unmet need and remaining instability” and called for immediate investment.
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Water bills in England and Wales are set to rise by an average £94 over the next five years, the water regulator Ofwat has said. The typical £19 a year increase is a third less than the increase requested by companies and is intended to fund investment for improvements such as replacing leaking pipes and reducing sewage discharges into rivers and seas.
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Twenty of England’s largest local authority landlords have warned that the council housing financial model is ‘unsustainable’ with councils’ housing budgets facing a £2.2bn ‘black hole’.
A cross-party group of local authorities – including Birmingham City Council, Leeds City Council and Camden Council – warned that England’s council housing system has been hit hard by a lack of funding and ‘erratic’ national policy changes.
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The Local Government Association's (LGA) new chair has emphasised the need for councils to show they can ‘keep up' with Labour's ambitious programme for Government.
Speaking to The MJ after officially replacing Shaun Davies in the post – following his election as an MP – Louise Gittins said the sector was ‘sometimes seen as a bit slow to react' and needed to show it was ‘hitting the ground running'.
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The new transport secretary has confirmed that every local area will be able to take control of its buses through franchising or public ownership.
Louise Haigh will meet Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham today to discuss how the region’s bus franchise, the first in the country outside London, can be replicated nationwide.
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The Unite union has "overwhelmingly" rejected this year’s local government pay offer, and warned that a ballot for strike action was now likely.
The National Employers offered a pay increase of £1,290 which equates to 5.77% for the lowest paid, from 1 April 2024.
GMB, Unison and Unite had asked for "£3,000 or 10% whichever is higher" when they submitted the claim earlier this year.
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The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a National Wealth Fund (NWF) which will be launched with £7.3 billion from the Treasury, with money coming from a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, the closing of tax loopholes as well as further funding to be announced at the next budget. The NWF aims to attract £3 of private investment for every £1 of public money invested for key industries.
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The prime minister and deputy prime minister have promised to “reset” the relationship between central and local government as they prepare to meet with metro mayors on Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of the meeting Sir Keir Starmer said he had made it a priority to meet with the 12 metro mayors in his first week in office as “those with skin in the game are the ones who know best what they need.”
He added: “By resetting these crucial relationships and putting more power in the hands of local leaders, I’m determined to make sure they have the support they need to play their part in delivering economic growth in every part of the country.”
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities has been renamed as the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), removing what the new government described as a “slogan” from the previous administration.
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In her first speech as chancellor, Rachel Reeves has outlined plans on reform to the National Planning Policy Framework. She promised her government would build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, as well as a new taskforce "to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country". Chair of the LGA, Cllr Louise Gittins said: “Councils stand ready to help the Government achieve our shared ambitions to boost inclusive economic growth and housebuilding. National growth can only be achieved if every local economy is firing on all cylinders.”
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A report into a council's controversial trial of a four-day working week suggests it has maintained the quality of its services.
South Cambridgeshire District Council introduced the scheme in January 2023 for most of its staff and extended it to bin crews in September. It means staff are meant to do the same amount of work in 80% of their contracted hours without losing any pay.
A group of researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Salford looked at 24 different parts of the council's work before and after the trial.
They found it had improved in 11 areas, including the percentage of calls being answered by its contact centre, the number of major planning decisions made on time and invoices being paid by the council within 30 days. Staff turnover also dropped by 40%, the report said.
Outcomes in some areas remained the same, including frequency of bin collections, while they dropped in two areas, including housing rent collections and meeting a 17-day target to re-let empty council homes.
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Identifying parts of the green belt that are suitable for new development is "essential" to addressing the housing crisis, some experts have told LGC, while councils have called on ministers to ensure they have the "proper levers" and infrastructure to deliver.
Yesterday, in her first speech as chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined the government’s plans to reform planning, which included requiring local planning authorities to review greenbelt boundaries to increase housing supply.
She also confirmed that the government will consult on plans to reform the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) before the end of July and restore mandatory housing targets.
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Shropshire Council could cut 540 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts in a bid to cut costs by becoming a smaller organisation.
The unitary authority, which employs around 3,500 staff, is facing a budget gap of £62.5m this year and estimates it could save £27m by resizing.
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A member of Essex County Council’s cabinet has offered to brief Nigel Farage MP on special educational needs and disabilities issues after the leader of Reform UK criticised the council for SEND delays.
Mr Farage, who was elected as MP for Clacton, and James McMurdock, who won in South Basildon and East Thurrock, said they would put pressure on councils after hearing from parents about delays in the provision of SEND services in their Essex constituencies.
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Kemi Badenoch has been named shadow communities secretary by opposition leader Rishi Sunak.
The Conservative MP for North West Essex previously held the role of business secretary prior to the party's defeat in last week's General Election.
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Twenty councils in the south east of England have formed the country’s largest local authority fostering partnership in a bid to boost the number of carers in the region.
The virtual fostering hub, which launched yesterday, will offer prospective carers access to a centralised platform for their enquiries, and marketing campaigns will raise awareness of the role of a carer.
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In his first speech outside Downing Street as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer cautioned that, despite Labour's parliamentary majority, his aim of "rebuilding" Britain "will take a while". Sir Keir has confirmed his new cabinet - which will meet for the first time today - with Angela Rayner appointed as Levelling Up Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Wes Streeting as Health and Social Care Secretary and Ed Milliband named Energy Secretary
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New Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned that the state of the economy means "there is not a lot of money there" for Labour to use to boost public service spending. Ms Reeves said that reform of the planning system was "front and centre" of Labour's plan to grow the economy. It is reported that Sue Gray, the PM’s Chief of Staff, has compiled a list of immediate issues facing the new government, which includes complex pay negotiations and under-pressure council budgets. The LGA has warned that councils face a funding gap of £6.2 billion over the next two years.
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The Liberal Democrats plan to use their best-ever number of MPs to try and push Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to begin cross-party talks on a new plan for social care. It is also reported that the Lib Dems want to ensure that the position of unpaid carers was considered properly by the new government.
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Council leaders say local government funding pressures are something that the new Labour government cannot ignore and that an immediate cash injection is needed just to keep them afloat. The LGA estimates that councils face a funding gap of at least £6.2 billion over the next two years, largely driven by a rise in the cost of providing adult social care and children’s services.
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There are at least 74 new MPs with current or recent experience serving on councils, LGC analysis has found.
At the general election last week Labour won 412 seats, a gain of 211 since 2019. The Conservatives won 121 seats, a loss of 252, and the Liberal Democrats won 72, a gain of 64.
Ahead of the election LGC identified 127 current or former councillors who were standing at the general election. Our analysis is based on information gathered when candidates were announced and therefore could be an underestimate of the number.
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n her first speech since being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves has outlined how growth will be achieved around the country through a raft of new measures.
Appointed on Friday following the Labour Party’s election win, Reeves has become the UK’s first female chancellor, and has set out a number of measures today that include the cutting of red tape when it comes to planning.
Beginning her speech, the Chancellor said:
“Growth requires hard choices. Choices that previous governments have shied away from. And it now falls to this new Labour government to fix the foundations.
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The Department for Education has announced that the new Education Secretary has already begun work to improve the relationship between the government and the teaching profession.
After being confirmed as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Education Secretary on Friday afternoon, Bridget Phillipson has begun work to recruit a further 6,500 new teachers. This will not only improve the relationship between the profession and the government, but also ‘transform the image of teaching’ – a key part of bringing in new teachers and retaining those that are already in the role.
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Former Oldham MBC leader Jim McMahon as been appointed as a minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
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A report into South Cambridgeshire District Council’s controversial four-day week trial found the majority of key performance indicators had improved or remained the same.
Under a four-day week, South Cambridgeshire DC officers are expected to carry out all of their work in around 80% of their contracted hours while remaining on full pay.
Analysis by the universities of Cambridge and Salford of the 24 key performance indicators monitored by the council found that 22 improved or remained the same.
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Somerset Council will consider paying an extra £47m over six years for waste services after its contractor disclosed it was making significant losses in the area.
Suez warned the local authority in May that it would consider exiting the contract, despite the financial penalty it would face, unless payments were increased.
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Earlier today, the new Prime Minister announced that next Tuesday he will host a meeting with metro-mayors in England to discuss regional economic development. This was part his commitment to drive growth in all four corners of the nation and devolve powers outside of Whitehall.
Responding to the announcement, the County Councils Network (CCN), which represents 37 county and large unitary authorities, says that with less than half of England’s population covered by a metro-mayor, a failure to involve county authorities in these discussions would be a ‘missed opportunity’, leaving large parts of the country – particularly rural areas – without a voice.
CCN is urging the Prime Minister to ensure counties have a seat at the table, harnessing the expertise and experience of county authorities, who are responsible for attracting and spending billions in economic development, infrastructure and regeneration investment every single year.
Ahead of the election, CCN’s Manifesto for Counties set out that the incoming government should undertake a bold and ambitious programme of devolution in England, ensuring that all areas without a devolution are able to secure one by 2027.
The proposals contained in the manifesto (see here) outlined that securing a devolution should not require an area to adopt the metro-mayor model. While some areas have adopted a combined authority mayor or Elected Leader, many county and rural areas considering this model unsuitable.
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CIPFA LASAAC has announced it is changing its approach to the huge backlog of English local authority audits, because the planned ‘backstop’ system for outstanding audits has been disrupted by the general election.
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A family in Surrey has been paid £1,500 in compensation after the county council failed to provide school transport for a child with complicated medical needs.
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The Labour Party has been asking local government pensions schemes (LGPS) their views on greater ‘investment into the UK’ as they look to drive economic growth, a consultant has said.
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Whitehall departments are preparing briefings for new ministers – with stark advice on critical issues that will need quick decisions.
As voters go to the polls, civil servants are finalising the briefing documents that will await the new ministerial teams who will begin business within hours of the result being declared.
The new prime minister will begin making announcements on posts – and potentially a reorganisation of Whitehall departments. Final ministerial posts are traditionally agreed over the weekend.
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Sir Keir Starmer has led the Labour Party to a landslide General Election victory and will take over as the UK's Prime Minister. Labour crossed the line for a Parliamentary majority when than 150 seats were still to declare. Sir Keir said: "Today, we start the next chapter, begin the work of change, the mission of national renewal and start to rebuild our country." Rishi Sunak said the British people had delivered a "sobering verdict" with the Conservatives set for its worst electoral result in history. The Lib Dems have increased its number of MPs to record levels with party leader Sir Ed Davey declaring the result as its "best ever". The Green Party has also increased its number of MPs.
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Some councils are being locked out of the inter-authority lending market, where local councils borrow from each other, it is reported. Others are facing higher borrowing rates for the loans, as local authorities worry about at the potential risk of lending to them. Last year, almost £12 billion of councils’ £135 billion in outstanding borrowing came from the inter-authority market, according to government figures. The LGA has warned that councils face a £6.2 billion hole in their budgets in the next two years after facing soaring costs and rising demand for services.
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The Conservative Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) team has faced a near wipe out in Labour's election landslide.
However, the Labour victory has give a raft of councillors parliamentary seats, including Local Government Association chair Shaun Davies, who will be succeeded in his role by Cheshire West and Chester leader Louise Gittins.
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Following the Conservatives’ general election defeat, outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that he will step down as leader of the party.
In a speech outside Number 10 Downing Street, Sunak spoke about his pride in having led the United Kingdom as Prime Minister, whilst also congratulating Sir Keir Starmer on his election victory. Sunak then went on to outline how he will step down as leader of his party – and Leader of the Opposition – with the wheels being set in motion to appoint his successor.
By stepping down Sunak becomes the fifth Conservative Leader to resign since David Cameron won the 2010 General Election, and the third since 2022.
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Never mind the graph of doom that predicted the collapse of local government, there’s a far bigger risk warning ready for the new PM.
Sir Keir Starmer’s lead adviser, Sue Gray, is understood to have been drawing up a list of critical issues that must be tackled early before they turn into a crisis.
Then the Westminster media briefed that she wasn’t the only one as civil servants were drawing up a ‘black swan’ list of their own.
It’s a tricky moment as there are not only new ministers but also a raft of special advisers arriving with them.
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Deputy leader of the Labour party Angela Rayner has been confirmed as deputy prime minister and communities secretary.
Her full job title was announced as secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, suggesting the name of the department has not changed .
Ms Rayner became shadow communities secretary last September. Before entering politics she was a care worker and has experience of living in council housing.
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A new Institute for Government report has outlined how a new approach must be taken to capital spending to stop service performance from continuing to falter.
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The first so-called coastal tourist tax in the UK has been put on hold following opposition from Dorset hoteliers.
Guests at around 70 large hotels were to be charged an extra £2 per room per night, with the levy expected to generate around £12m to support the region’s tourism over five years.
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District councils should have the powers to increase council tax referendum limits to at least 10% as a first step to scrapping them altogether, district council chiefs say.
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The NHS owes Cambridgeshire County Council £13m for adult social care services, a report has revealed.
The debt has risen from £1.4m in March 2023: an increase of £11.6m.
A council report says officers are ‘very activity engaging’ with the integrated care board to recover the money.
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The proportion of councils’ total housing budget spent on homelessness and temporary accommodation has tripled since 2015, new analysis has revealed.
The Local Government Association (LGA) found that councils in England and Wales spent £315m on homelessness in 2015-16, compared to just over £1bn in 2023-24 – a sum it said could rise when official figures are released.
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Leeds City Council has proposed reducing transport support for post-16 learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The council spends £4m-£4.5m each year on discretionary transport assistance, with the number of learners receiving transport support having doubled since 2015.
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Britain’s next government is set to benefit from easing pressure on household finances after a slowdown in inflation in shops and a fall in fuel prices, but costs remain “too expensive” for many families. Figures from the British Retail Consortium show that annual UK shop price inflation slowed last month to 0.2 per cent, down from 0.6 per cent in May – the slowest pace since October 2021 – as retailers cut the prices of many of their key products, including butter and coffee.
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A Local Government Association (LGA) survey has revealed just 54% of councils now feel the organisation provides value for money.
This perception has dropped dramatically among chief executives, falling from 81% in 2021 to 59% in 2023. For directors it has dropped from 62% to 50%.
Among leaders, the perceptions survey found 69% felt the LGA provided value for money, while 52% of frontline councillors shared the view.
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It is claimed Britain’s roads have 11.5 million potholes, which is five times higher than previous estimates, according to a campaigner using data from a new AI dashboard app. Cllr Claire Holland, Transport spokesperson for the LGA, said: “Longer-term, whoever forms the next government should award council Highways Departments with five yearly funding allocations to give more certainty, bringing councils on a par with National Highways so they can develop resurfacing programmes and other highways improvements, tackling the scourge of potholes.”
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Young people are “crying out” for a return of youth clubs with three-quarters of 16- to 19-year-olds in England lacking ways to connect with youth workers, according to research from the National Youth Agency. More than half of people in their late teens are specifically calling for more youth work that offers “fun”, with older teenagers particularly hankering for more jollity and one in 10 said they have zero options to access youth work. Youth groups are urging the next government to inject up to £1 billion a year into services in England.
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People who care for family members free of charge are taking a hit to their finances which could continue into their retirement as they find themselves unable to balance paid work with caring commitments. Analysis by financial firm Just Retirement found seven in 10 people receiving carer’s allowance were not in paid work, and missing out on earnings and private pension contributions.
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In a letter to the Guardian, Professor Roger Brown says the planning system is not the problem – the issue is developers failing to build. He references LGA analysis from 2021, which estimated that planning permission had been granted for 2.8 million homes in the previous decade in England but only 60 per cent of them had been built.
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The economy grew by more than initially estimated in the first three months of 2024 as the UK emerged from recession, revised official figures show. Between January and March, the economy grew by 0.7 per cent the Office for National Statistics said. Figures released last month initially estimated growth had been 0.6 per cent.
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The government should not delay acting on issues, the outgoing chief of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has said, in response to a 16-month gap between reviews of council debt and publication of the reports.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (Cipfa) was commissioned by the Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities in February 2023 to review the capital programmes of local authorities known to have high levels of debt. However, the findings of some of the reports were not made public until May this year.
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The next government has a “window of opportunity” to reform local government finance before the whole system falls over, the sector’s most senior accountant has warned.
In an interview with LGC to mark his retirement from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy after 11 years as chief executive, Rob Whiteman said local government was “a few years off being in a very dangerous place”.
He said the extra one-off resources secured for councils in recent years by communities secretary Michael Gove, who he described as a “big hitter secretary of state”, had “staved off the worst that we feared” of significant numbers of councils being unable to balance the books.
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Both main parties have ducked the crucial questions of local government capacity, planning reform and public sector procurement, according to a leading sector think-tank.
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National and local infrastructure features heavily in their general election manifestos, but with Labour and the Conservatives reluctant to increase borrowing or taxes, how will they be funded in a post-PFI world? Craig Elder, partner at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson who worked on some of the UK’s highest-value PFI projects, explores the options available to the next government.
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It has been reported that Labour plans to introduce automatic voter registration (AVR) if elected next week.
The party’s manifesto says it would ‘improve voter registration’ and electoral officials have told the Guardian the pledge relates to plans for people to be added to the electoral roll by default, although a Labour source denied the party was committing to the policy.
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Local authorities in England have raised concerns that they will be unable to meet demand in the next phase of the expansion of free childcare.
From September, children from nine months old in England will be eligible for 15 free hours a week until they start school, but almost six in 10 councils (59%) are either not confident or not sure they will have enough places to meet demand, research by Coram Family and Childcare (CFC) found.
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Existing pressures on housing and services will determine the distribution of asylum seekers this year, The MJ can reveal.
A letter from the Home Office’s chief operating officer for asylum support, resettlement and accommodation, Andrew Larter, said the latest dispersed accommodation targets for asylum seekers were ‘based on an indexing tool which weights each regional plan by three key overarching factors’.
The factors are the current housing market and viability (70%), social factors including pressures on local services (15%) and the existing population (15%).
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During a visit to Northamptonshire, Sir Keir Starmer promised to ensure that local government was properly funded if Labour are elected. He also pledged to end no-fault evictions, which he said put extra burdens on local authorities. The LGA has called for all parties to commit to a "significant and sustained increase in funding for councils in the next Spending Review, alongside multi-year funding settlements and plans to reform the local government finance system”.
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A ‘transformative overhaul of governance’ has been called for by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).
Responding to a consultation by the Committee on Standards in Public Life looking at accountability within public bodies and the importance of acting on early warning signs, CIPFA said there was an ‘urgent need for decisive action’ to restore trust in the public sector.
CIPFA highlighted dysfunctional relationships between officers and councillors, inadequate resources and the wrong culture as factors hindering local authorities in identifying and resolving issues.
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After the austerity of the 2010s, a look at the headline figures for local government funding would suggest councils should now be feeling more financially secure. Their core funding per resident is up around 10% in real-terms since 2019-20, after adjusting for whole-economy inflation. That is nowhere near enough to undo previous cuts, but enough to ease the pressure on council budgets and allow some expansion and improvements to services?
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Officers have recommended that Hampshire County Council withdraws from a transport partnership involving three other local authorities.
Hampshire pays £90,000 a year to Solent Transport, which was established in 2007.
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Even the most optimistic scenario for a real-terms funding increase of local government in the next parliament will fall well short of that needed to maintain service provision, according to analysis conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
With grants frozen and council tax up 5% per annum, a real-terms funding change of 2.5% per year, might be expected, the IFS said. This compares to the 4.5% real-terms increase the Local Government Association estimates will be needed if spending pressures continue to rise as quickly as in recent years.
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Kent County Council has warned of an estimated budget gap of £81m for the next financial year, whilst also underspending on its capital programme by £192.7m in 2023/24.
According to the authority, Kent has had to find almost £1bn in savings and income generation to manage spending within funding availability since 2011. In the same period, the council’s revenue budget has increased from £943m to £1.4bn.
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Political parties have been told to wake up to a looming crisis in local government that could see a swathe of councils face financial collapse over the next five years.
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A joint statement from the LGA and 42 partners has called for a “step change” in the way the sector is understood and talked about by politicians. The public must be given reasons to be hopeful about the future of social care rather than alarmed by the challenges it faces, the statement said. Cllr David Fothergill, LGA Community Wellbeing Board Chairman was interviewed by LBC, and said that “there has not been enough discussion about social care by any political party”.
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In a warning about the viability of councils in England, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the scope for further reductions to services was severely limited for some councils after more than a decade of financial challenges. It referenced LGA analysis on the amount core spending power for local government would need to increase to meet the demand for services. Cllr Kevin Bentley, Senior Vice Chairman of the LGA urged all political parties to promise “a significant and sustained increase in funding”. He added: “A funding gap of more than £6 billion over the next two years, fuelled by rising cost and demand pressures, means a chasm will continue to grow between what people and their communities need and want from their councils and what councils can deliver.”
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities has published local authority service expenditure budgets for the 2024-25 financial year.
With 96% of England’s local authorities responding to the Department’s call for Revenue Account budget returns, it was found that budgets amount to an increase of £8.6 billion when compared to 2023-24, with budgets coming to £127.1 billion for the next year. In the main, this increase came across four areas.
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A new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has outlined how major political party manifestos have steered away from outlining how individual public services will be funded.
Labelled as a ‘conspiracy of silence’ when it comes to plans for public service spending, the lack of baselines for spending has created three issues according to the IFS. The first of these is that it is impossible to evaluate whether public service improvement plans are plausible. An example used within the report is the health and social care budget and the delivery of the NHS Workforce plan, which remains in doubt as different spending paths could leave the gap between promised additional spending anywhere between £1 and £20 billion a year.
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The National Audit Office has instructed auditors to "continue to make every effort" to complete planned audits despite the general election effectively halting backstop plans.
A supplementary guidance note was issued last week stating that proposed changes to the code of audit practice such the introductions of statutory public deadlines for accounts cannot proceed until a new parliament is formed.
As of March 2024, a total of 646 audit opinions are delayed for financial years 2015-16 to 2022-23, according to the latest figures from the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA).
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A statement from the LGA, co-signed by 42 other leading social care organisations has called for a “step change” in the way the sector is understood and talked about by politicians. The public must be given reasons to be hopeful about the future of social care rather than alarmed by the challenges it faces, the statement said. It added that those within the sector have been struck by social care not being “as prominent as it should be in debates about the future of our communities”.
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In a warning about the viability of councils in England, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the scope for further reductions to services was severely limited for some councils after more than a decade of financial challenges. It referenced LGA analysis on the amount core spending power for local government would need to increase to meet the demand for services. Cllr Kevin Bentley, Senior Vice Chairman of the LGA urged all political parties to promise “a significant and sustained increase in funding”. He added: “A funding gap of more than £6 billion over the next two years, fuelled by rising cost and demand pressures, means a chasm will continue to grow between what people and their communities need and want from their councils and what councils can deliver.”
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Care workers have told Sky News a £15 an hour wage is the "bare minimum needed" to stabilise the sector, with some receiving only a £6 pay rise in 33 years. Industry leaders and other groups representing care workers say the wage floor needs to be much higher to address a growing recruitment and retention crisis - with some 150,000 vacancies in need of filling.
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Competitive funding process that require councils to borrow to match government funding were criticised as “strange”, by Warrington BC’s chief executive.
Speaking at LGC’s Net Zero conference yesterday, Steven Broomhead said “policy fragmentation” is a problem, but “even worse is financial fragmentation”.
He was part of a panel about transport where he said: “It is more and more difficult to access capital funding, which is what we need to make the necessary interventions.”
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Councils could be forced to cut back service provision if cost and demand pressures continue to grow, researchers have warned.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) noted that the main parties’ manifestos were ‘almost silent’ on council funding, meaning there is significant uncertainty about what the financial landscape for local government will look like over the next parliament.
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Interest rates are expected to be held at 5.25 per cent for the seventh time in a row by the Bank of England on Thursday. Despite inflation hitting the central bank's target level, most economists have predicted rates, will not be cut. They believe the Bank will wait to see if inflation stays at 2 per cent in the coming months, with a first rate cut in the autumn now looking more likely than the summer.
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A historic legal judgement has ‘fundamentally changed’ the landscape around planning permission for fossil fuel extraction, campaigners have said.
The Supreme Court ruled today that Surrey County Council acted unlawfully when it granted permission for oil drilling at Horse Hill, near Horley, without considering the climate impacts of the inevitable burning of the oil.
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The Liberal Democrats have committed to spending £300m over the next Parliament to fill 1.2 million potholes a year.
The party says it will redirect funds from the road-building budget to address the ‘pothole postcode lottery’, where some councils take up to 18 months to fix a pothole.
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A Labour drive to fill in the devolution map will take time and energy away from deepening devolution in areas that have already secured deals, an expert has warned.
The party’s manifesto last week said Labour would ‘widen devolution to more areas, encouraging local authorities to come together and take on new powers’ while also deepening devolution settlements for existing combined authorities.
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Limited funding and inadequate data are major barriers to road safety planning and measurement, local authorities have reported.
In a survey of 200 council bosses, 63% cited lack of funding as an issue, while 45% said they faced a lack of accurate data when assessing the success of road safety schemes and infrastructure.
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Charities and housing bodies have urged the major parties to commit to building 90,000 social homes per year over the next decade.
The letter, coordinated by Homeless Link and signed by 54 other organisations focusing on homelessness and housing, also called on the next government to work across party lines to end homelessness.
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North Yorkshire Council is set to build 90 new temporary accommodation units at a cost of £11.6m.
Gross spend on temporary accommodation was over £500,000 in 2019/20 and increased to more than £2,100,000 in 2022/23 – an overall increase in spending of 400%, according to a council report.
North Yorkshire Council members predict delivery of the new temporary accommodation units could bring annual savings of £1.7m by 2027/28.
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LGC research uncovers the measures councils are taking to make sure they cut costs
Most council finance directors have increased their oversight of spending, with pressures mounting, according LGC research.
In May LGC asked all upper tier authorities how they were handling their financial pressures and 50 councils responded. Nearly two-thirds said they had taken additional steps such as lowering authorisation thresholds or implementing stricter reviews of spending.
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Reducing headcount is one way local authorities save money
Almost four in 10 councils have considered making people redundant as a cost cutting measure, according to LGC research.
In May LGC asked all upper tier authorities how they were handling their financial pressures and 50 councils responded.
Of those that responded, 18% said they currently have a recruitment freeze or have had one in the past 12 months and 14% have a freeze on paying for agency staff.
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Inflation has reached the Bank of England's target for the first time in almost three years. Prices rose at 2 per cent in the year to May, down from 2.3 per cent the month before, official figures show.
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NHS funding will be used to buy thousands of beds in care homes under Labour plans to reduce overcrowding in England’s hospitals, long waits in A&E and patients becoming trapped in ambulances, if the party wins the general election. Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said the move would tackle the huge human and financial “waste” of beds being occupied by patients fit to leave but stuck there due to a lack of care outside the hospital, with 13,000 beds in England being occupied by such patients.
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Achieving levelling up goals by 2030 will require a big increase in resources for struggling areas, a leading thinktank has said. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that, on many measures, regional inequality had widened.
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has suggested his party would review the policy of mandatory voter ID if elected to govern.
A report into the controversial law by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on democracy and the constitution last year described voter ID as a ‘poisoned cure’ that prevented at least 14,000 people from voting in the local elections and first-of-its-kind polling earlier this year found five million voters could be disenfranchised by the rules at the General Election, the first time they will apply nationally.
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Some Integrated Care Boards (ICB) are seeking to challenge or repurpose the parts of the Better Care Fund (BCF) earmarked for social care funding, senior Local Government Association (LGA) councillors have been told.
A report to the latest meeting of the LGA’s executive advisory board said it was ‘offering some support to councils in systems which cannot agree the use of the BCF’.
The report read: ‘The LGA has reminded DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care] and NHS England of the rules and original purpose of the fund, and advocated strongly against the behaviour shown by some ICBs.’
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The Local Government Association has rescheduled its annual conference and exhibition to October after the original date clashed with the snap general election.
It will take place at the Harrogate Convention Centre on 22-24 October, during half term in some areas. However, the annual general assembly meeting will be held virtually as planned on 2 July.
LGA senior vice chairman Kevin Bentley (Con) said the LGA was "delighted to have been able to secure a date" this autumn as "it will provide a perfect opportunity for the local government family to come together after the general election and discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead".
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Councils in England are expecting a shortfall of nearly £1 billion in special needs budgets this year. Parent groups have said they fear children could miss out on support as a result of rising high needs deficits. Since 2019, the accumulated deficit in England for special educational needs and disabilities has reached £3.2 billion, according to the County Councils Network.
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Questions hang over the future of local government finance in the event of a Labour victory in next month’s General Election.
The party’s manifesto includes a pledge to ‘replace the business rates system’ but leader Sir Keir Starmer has yet to expand on what changes will be made.
Labour claimed the overhaul would ‘raise the same revenue but in a fairer way’ and ‘level the playing field between the high street and online giants’.
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LGC has been through the general election manifestos from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties to see what they propose for the main policy areas relevant to local government.
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Current and former local authority bosses have been recognised in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours. Including ex-SCT President, Margaret Lee and Surrey CC’s leader and chair of the County Councils’ Network (CCN) Tim Oliver who both received OBEs.
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Finance experts praise the “positive intent” of the Labour Party manifesto but share their fears over the lack of clarity over their plans for local government.
Labour’s manifesto promised replacing business rates with a new system, multi-year funding for local government and further devolution.
Sector experts said they need clarification on the practicalities of these plans and are concerned about their timing, with the next financial settlement due within the first six months of the next parliament.
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Funding cuts have led to the closure of more than two-thirds of council-run youth centres in England and Wales since 2010, according to a trade union.
Unison found that 1,243 council-run youth centres closed between 2010 and 2023, with just 581 still in operation by the end of March last year.
By 2023, more than four in 10 councils (42%) no longer operated their own youth centres.
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The number of places in council-run children’s homes in England has fallen by a third since 2012 – at the same time as places in privately run profit-making children’s homes have soared, according to an Observer analysis of government data.
The dramatic fall in council-run children’s homes, and local authorities’ increasing reliance on privately run provision, have helped drive a rise in children being housed hundreds of miles from their families, with private provision clustering in cheaper parts of the country.
Figures from annual reports published by the regulator Ofsted show that the number of places in council-run children’s homes fell from around 3,250 in 2012 to 2,087 in 2023. But over the past eight years, the number of children in privately run homes rose by 63%. Overall, there are now 9,717 children in homes run by either private companies or charities, with the vast majority in the private sector.
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Two years ago Kian Gallimore was so anxious about going to school that patches of his hair and his eyelashes turned “pure white” almost overnight.
Bullied at his primary school in Stoke-on-Trent by children who had previously befriended him, he felt further ostracised when he was offered only a backstage role in the school production of Alice in Wonderland. If supply teachers turned up he developed “bellyache”.
At the age of 11, the council offered Kian a place in a large failing secondary school, but “we knew he would not cope”, says his mother, Amy Gallimore. The GP put the change in his hair colour down to stress and Kian did not go to school for nine months, rarely speaking in public. “It was a horrendous situation,” Gallimore says.
Then the family met Tracy Whitehurst, principal of Aurora Hanley School. She would change Kian’s life.
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The number of children and young people in England requiring support for special educational needs and disabilities has increased sharply according to new data. Local authorities issued 84,400 education, health and care plans (EHCPs) last year, according to figures released by the Department for Education, a 26 per cent increase compared with 2022. Nearly one in 19 children in England aged between five and 15 now have an EHCP. Cllr Louise Gittins, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board said: “Councils want to be able to provide the very best support to children with special educational needs and their families. However, these record figures are a reminder of the huge pressure councils are under, with the number of EHCPs increasing every year since they were introduced in 2014.”
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Planning permissions have fallen to the lowest level since 2005 it is reported. The number of applications granted in England fell by 10.4 per cent between January and March compared to the same period last year, according to the latest statistics from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.
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The Resolution Foundation said the nation’s worsening health and a rise in pension payments would lead to a significant increase in welfare spending. In total, more than 90p of every extra £1 spent on benefits will go towards either the state pension or disability and incapacity claims. The Resolution Foundation said Britain’s ageing population and a commitment to keep the triple lock on pensions will increase the welfare bill by £9.5 billion in real terms between 2024-25 and 2028-29.
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Today the Lib Dems have announced £8.35bn extra for health and social care. This is welcome as they are areas of huge need. However, public service professionals are struggling due to chronic resource shortages.
Spending increases alone won't be enough to make lasting and sustainable improvements in health and care provision unless we address the underlying fragility in our public services. The problems facing the entire system of service delivery must be addressed. CIPFA looks forward to commitments from the other parties in these critical areas.
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This manifesto is light on how the Conservative party will pay for any public services. Tax cuts mean less spending, there is no headroom for us to borrow more as a country and that will mean the burden will fall on already stretched public services. As the professional body for public sector accountants, we focus relentlessly on public services and sound fiscal practice. It is difficult to find much in today’s publication that responds robustly to our calls for stability and predictability in public service resourcing.
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On stability, Labour stresses fiscal predictability. There are well trailed tax initiatives: removing the VAT exemption on private schools to pay for 6500 extra teachers, a windfall tax on energy companies. But personal direct taxes will be frozen.
On renewal, public services are highlighted. Labour commits to reduce NHS waiting times. Extra resources are earmarked for potholes. The manifesto also focuses on growth and opportunity, with particular emphasis on removing regulatory obstacles to housebuilding.
Both stability and renewal are desirable. But so severe are the challenges confronting local public services that it is difficult to see how they can be rejuvenated and stabilised without far-reaching changes in how they are resourced.
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Labour's plans to reform the planning system to "kick start economic growth" must be underpinned with adequate funding for planning services, sector experts have said.
The party's manifesto which was published yesterday said it would "immediately" update the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to undo recent changes and restore mandatory housing targets.
Labour also promised to give combined authorities new planning powers "along with new freedoms and flexibilities to make better use of grant funding" in addition to reviewing the right to buy discounts.
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Social care experts are not convinced Labour's manifesto pledges will meet the challenges facing the sector but instead "largely dodges the issue".
Chief executive of the King's Fund, Sarah Woolnough said Labour's "promises on social care reform could best be described as a plan to come up with a plan".
She added: "The current social care system in England is not fit for purpose and many people’s needs go unmet, yet it is one of the most over-looked and ignored policy challenges in recent decades."
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Elected Greens will push for a re-evaluation of council tax bands to ‘reflect big changes in value’ since the 1990s, the party has pledged in its manifesto.
Greens said their ‘long-term policy aim’ was a land value tax so that those with the ‘most valuable and largest land holdings would contribute the most’.
The manifesto, which also said the party would ‘push for an increase in local government funding of £5bn per year to tackle the current under-funding crisis’, read: ‘The Green Party has always opposed the council tax, which is a regressive tax, that shifts the emphasis away from a local tax on property.
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The UK economy failed to grow in April after particularly wet weather put off shoppers and slowed down construction. The official data is what most economists had expected and comes after the fastest growth in two years from January to March, ending the recession from the final half of last year.
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Councils are considering seeking legal advice over statutory guidance that will tell local authorities to collect residual waste at least every two weeks, The MJ understands.
The ‘minimum standard’ for residual waste collection frequency is due to be introduced by the end of March 2026, although local government insiders are unsure whether this could change under a new government.
Whitehall said waste collection authorities ‘must have regard to the statutory guidance’ and it ‘actively encourages’ councils to collect residual waste more frequently than fortnightly.
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The UK Municipal Bonds Agency (UKMBA) remains dependent on support from the Local Government Association (LGA), according to its latest accounts.
UKMBA suffered ‘delays of the company’s planned pipeline of bond transactions in 2023’ due to high interest rates and disruption caused by the Ukraine conflict.
The blow comes after the previous year’s accounts, when UKMBA said it expected to ‘generate positive cash flows’ in the short to medium term.
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Ministers have not signed off the Government’s 2024 targets for identifying an extra 100,000 bedspaces for asylum seekers this year, The MJ can reveal.
Home Office officials had suggested politicians had approved the figures but it has now emerged the plans are still in draft form.
A senior officer said: ‘It is inconceivable that Home Office officials would issue a plan that has obvious potential to cause political controversy without at least showing it to ministers.
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Council elections teams are facing a workload surge as they race to register voters in time for the General Election.
By the beginning of this week, 1.2 million people had applied to register since the election was called, with a week left before the deadline.
This year’s figure compares to just under 1m at the same point in 2017, when the election was called at a similar point in the calendar.
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One million potholes a year will be fixed if Labour is elected on 4 July, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh has said.
Under the proposals, councils will be funded to improve the condition of local roads and planning barriers will be removed to ensure infrastructure upgrades can be delivered.
The plan will be funded by £320m that will be saved by the deferral of the planned A27 bypass in the south of England.
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Labour has opened the door to reining in Right to Buy in its manifesto today.
The document includes a pledge to ‘increase protections on newly-built social housing’ and review the increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012.
In a heavy focus on housing, the manifesto promised to help councils ‘build their capacity’ to supply affordable homes, but was light on further details.
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The Labour party has promised to “deepen” and “widen” devolution and review the governance arrangements for combined authorities.
Today’s manifesto launch set out an offer to “deepen devolution settlements for existing combined authorities” through “landmark devolution legislation to take back control”.
“We will also widen devolution to more areas, encouraging local authorities to come together and take on new powers,” the document said.
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The Labour party manifesto has pledged to allocate £95m of the predicted revenue from introducing VAT on private school fees towards launching youth future hubs "reaching every community".
This proposal promises to "intervene earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime," provide mental health "drop-in" spaces and careers advice.
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The Labour Party has said that the social care sector needs "deep reform", but no funding has been allocated specifically in the manifesto costings.
The manifesto, published today, states: "The sector needs deep reform: there are inconsistent standards, chronic staff shortages, and people are not always treated with the care, dignity and respect they deserve."
These reforms include a pledge to "undertake a programme of reform to create a National Care Service" that Labour says would "underpin national standards" that "ensure providers behave responsibly".
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The Labour party has pledged to "immediately" update the National Planning Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) to undo recent changes and restore mandatory housing targets.
In the manifesto published today Labour said it would give combined authorities new planning powers "along with new freedoms and flexibilities to make better use of grant funding" and would also review right to buy discounts.
The party also vowed to introduce new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning, which will require all combined and mayoral authorities to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas.
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Labour has promised councils multi-year funding settlements and an end to “wasteful competitive bidding” in its general election manifesto.
The document also pledges to replace business rates with an alternative which would “raise the same revenue but in a fairer way” while costings published alongside include £745m a year for “prioritising frontline public service delivery and public sector capability,” funded by “halving consultancy spend”.
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The Greens will pledge to raise National Insurance by 8 per cent for wages above £50,270, as they publish their manifesto later today. The Greens are also expected to announce the details of a Green Economic Transition programme to upgrade homes, a carbon tax, a 1 per cent wealth tax on assets worth more than £10m and a 75 per cent fossil fuel profit windfall tax on banks.
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Labour has pledged to fix an extra one million potholes a year. Its proposals will use £320 million saved from deferring the A27 bypass to fund local authorities and relax planning restrictions to deliver infrastructure upgrades.
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The Conservatives are pledging a further 2p cut in employee National Insurance, as they publish their manifesto later this morning. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also announcing a stamp duty cut for some first-time buyers, a new Help to Buy scheme, and tax cuts for landlords who sell to tenants.
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The Conservative party's manifesto promises that a future Tory government would not undertake an "expensive" council tax revaluation or review discounts on offer.
Ahead of today's manifesto launch, which took place at lunchtime, the Conservative party reiterated its commitment "not to change number of council tax bands, undertake an expensive council tax revaluation or cut council tax discounts" as part of wider promises to reduce taxes.
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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to create business rates retention zones as he launched the Conservatives’ General Election manifesto today.
Councils would be able to retain all business rates growth for 25 years, and use the funds to finance infrastructure projects and support industry.
The document also confirmed the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would be extended for three years before being diverted to fund the Conservatives' proposed national service.
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A major local government insurer has warned that months of rain may have caused ‘some of the worst ever road conditions’.
Zurich Municipal’s warning comes after the insurance firm found more than half of cyclists believe roads are in poor condition and dangerous.
Analysis by the firm found more than 6,500 injuries were sustained on roads and pavements in the past three years, with incidents including cyclists being thrown off bikes after hitting potholes and pedestrians tripping over tree roots.
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Councils in England face a funding gap of more than £6 billion over the next two years, according to new analysis in the LGA’s Local Government White Paper. Experts warn that rises in council tax will not be enough to plug funding gaps and meet demand pressures in special needs provision, children’s services, adult social care and homelessness support.
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The Liberal Democrat manifesto, set to be released today, will focus on health and social care, with a pledge to provide £9 billion to these services. This will include a plan to pay care workers £2 above the minimum wage and a raise in the Carers Allowance eligibility threshold.
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Labour will reportedly promise not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT for five years if the party wins the general election. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves already said this week they will not put up the taxes, ahead of Labour's manifesto launch expected on Thursday, but Labour will take their pledge further and vow to cast a “triple lock” on the “big three” taxes over the course of the first term in power.
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LGA housing spokesperson Cllr Victor Chamberlain was interviewed on Sky News in response to Freedom of Information figures showing there are tens of thousands of council houses currently empty, despite the country facing a national housing crisis. There are 33,993 vacant council properties in England, the highest number since 2009, with more than 6,000 publicly-owned homes empty for over a year. The LGA said a shortage of funding for councils is the cause of the number of vacant properties. Cllr Chamberlain said that in many cases “the council doesn't have the money in place to be able to refurbish them and bring them back into use as council homes”. He said money is instead paid to private landlords for temporary accommodation because councils have a duty to make sure that nobody is sleeping rough or does not have a secure place to sleep each night. Cllr Chamberlain said: “There’s a complete false economy, if we’re not able to spend the money on the actual solution but we’re using a sticking plaster of temporary accommodation, then the system is broken.”
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Labour has promised to “pull up the shutters” for small businesses and entrepreneurs if it is elected in the UK general election. The party said it would overhaul the business rates system to help High Street shops, as well as cracking down on the late payment of invoices.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pledged that if elected a Conservative government would not undertake a council tax revaluation.
Writing in a national newspaper, Hunt promised the Conservatives would not ‘increase the number of council tax bands, undertake an expensive council tax revaluation or cut council tax discounts’.
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Kent CC has been told by a judge it must accommodate and look after all unaccompanied asylum seeking (UAS) children 'irrespective' of its resources.
The judgment comes amid predictions that increasing numbers of UAS children will arrive over the summer on top of numbers ballooning by 59% last year – from 1,405 in 2022 to 2,228 in 2023.
In a judgment handed down on Wednesday (5 June) in the High Court, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: ‘It is important to be clear what it means to say that the section 20 duty to accommodate and look after all UAS children when notified of their arrival by the Home Office applies irrespective of the resources of the local authority.
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The general election may cause "increased costs to local authorities that can’t be reclaimed" the chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) has told LGC.
Returning officers claim costs for the running of elections from the government's the consolidated fund. But the costs the costs for registering people to vote are not included as this is part of council budgets.
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Neither the Conservatives nor Labour are serious about reducing the level of national debt, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has said, accusing both parties of avoiding the harsh reality of spending cuts after the election.
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The risk of adult social care provider failure is ‘currently heightened due to additional pressures in the market,’ a Whitehall document highlighting the key risks over the next few months has warned.
A Civil Contingencies Forward Look, seen by The MJ, blamed workforce capacity, fuel, utility and agency staff costs, and inflation.
Applications for health and social care worker visas plummeted by 76% compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the Home Office, with social care leaders warning the drop would destabilise the sector and result in poorer care for the elderly.
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Local authorities in England brought in a total of £127.3m in revenue from bus lane fines in 2022/23, according to the AA.
The AA’s analysis of Department for Transport data found that this revenue, after deducting £47.7m of costs, generated a total financial surplus of £79.6m.
Transport for London accrued most of this revenue (£48.5m) followed by Manchester City Council (£4.8m), Bristol City Council (£2.9m), and Essex County Council (£2.5m).
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The Local Government Association has published a new white paper outlining how the next government can solve numerous issues by building a new relationship with councils.
Including analysis into issues such as council funding gaps, the white paper calls for a new relationship that includes long-term financial certainty and empowerment to be at the forefront of the new relationship, with cost increases and demand pressures continuing to challenge councils.
As has been the case for a long time now, more and more councils are being forced to cut back on services that they provide for communities, to ensure that they are able to meet their obligations for adult and children’s social care, homelessness support and SEND school transportation. Part of the paper’s analysis revealed that two-thirds of local neighbourhood services such as waste collection, road repairs, and leisure services are being stripped back to try and make ends meet.
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A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has explored how local government finances have changed since 2010, and has found that core funding is still lower per resident than it was 14 years ago.
The publication of this report comes against the backdrop of a General Election campaign that has failed to address how the incoming government will address council funding, something that has continued to grow in importance over recent months and years.
By looking into the evolution of council finances both since 2010, and the most recent General Election in 2019, the report was able to find that funding from central government and local taxes is 9% lower than it was in 2010. Thanks to significant population growth, this translates to a cut of approximately 18% per resident.
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A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has explored how local government finances have changed since 2010, and has found that core funding is still lower per resident than it was 14 years ago.
The publication of this report comes against the backdrop of a General Election campaign that has failed to address how the incoming government will address council funding, something that has continued to grow in importance over recent months and years.
By looking into the evolution of council finances both since 2010, and the most recent General Election in 2019, the report was able to find that funding from central government and local taxes is 9% lower than it was in 2010. Thanks to significant population growth, this translates to a cut of approximately 18% per resident.
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The UK economy will grow faster than expected this year and next, according to upgraded forecasts from the British Chambers of Commerce.
The BCC, a business and industry lobby group, said the economy would expand by 0.8 per cent this year, up from a forecast of 0.5 per cent, and by 1 per cent in 2025, compared with an earlier projection of 0.7 per cent.
The acceleration in growth comes after the economy performed better than expected at the start of the year, registering its fastest quarter of output growth since 2022 at 0.6 per cent. The UK briefly slipped into a technical recession at the end of 2023, but is now on course for a slight recovery where longer-term growth prospects “are unlikely to be strong”, said the BCC.
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The LGA has warned that growing demand for accommodation means councils are now spending more than £1.74 billion supporting 104,000 households in temporary accommodation, both record highs. Analysis by the campaign group Generation Rent suggests more than 25 councils are spending at least 10 per cent of their core housing budget on temporary accommodation but more than 80 spend less than 1 per cent. The LGA says that building more “genuinely affordable homes” is the best way to tackle council housing waiting lists in the long term.
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There were 401,800 new sexually transmitted infections diagnosed in England last year, up 4.7 per cent from 383,789 in 2022, according to the UK Health Security Agency. Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA's Community Wellbeing Board, said the figures "show sexual health services continue to face rising demand pressures". He added that whoever forms the new government must introduce a "new 10-year strategy to tackle infection rates, and ensure that sexual health services are properly funded and resourced in the long-term".
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Local Government Association (LGA) leaders have failed to receive a reply from communities secretary Michael Gove to their letter on the controversial council league tables story.
Angry politicians called for an ‘urgent meeting’ with Gove more than a month ago on 2 May after The Times used Office for Local Government (Oflog) metrics to rank England’s 318 councils in the five areas the watchdog currently monitors – adult social care, corporate and finance, planning, roads and waste management.
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The number of councils seeking support due to financial crisis is expected to double over the next year unless the next government injects more cash into the sector, senior figures have warned.
Last month, Lambeth LBC became the 20th council to secure exceptional financial support from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) this year, in the form of a £50m capitalisation direction.
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The Liberal Democrats have pledged that free personal care will be offered to older or disabled people at home, if they were to form the next government.
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A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the party that wins the general election faces a “painful set of choices” in relation to England’s schools’ costs.
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An investigation has found the number of children moving to home education in the UK is at its biggest level since the pandemic. Councils received nearly 50,000 notifications in the last academic year from families wanting to take their children out of school.
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Just 41% of local authorities published their draft accounts for 2023/24 by the audit deadline, with many still struggling from the “knock-on impact” of the backlog.
According to the latest LG improve accounts tracker for 2023/24, which was released today (3 June), 128 authorities out of 315 published their draft accounts by the 31 May deadline.
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The Local Government Association (LGA) has called for powers and funding so that councils can take a leading role in driving inclusive growth.
A Local Government White Paper, which has been months in the making, emphasised the sector’s potential to deliver on what is a high-priority agenda for the Conservatives and Labour heading into the General Election.
The paper proposed working with the next government to provide a ‘place-based employment and skills offer’ and called for the creation of an ‘integrated multi-year growth fund’ to replace the current plethora of short-term funds.
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The sugar tax has been so successful in improving people’s diets that it should be extended to cakes, biscuits and chocolate, health experts say. The World Health Organization wants the next UK government to expand coverage of the levy to help tackle tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and other illnesses.
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The Conservatives have pledged to give £20 million to 30 towns across the country - many of which are based in the Midlands and north – as part of their existing long-term plan for towns. This would increase the number of towns that will receive financial support to more than 100. The Party said local people in each area would decide how the money would be spent, through new town boards composed of community leaders, businesspeople, local government and the local MP.
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Allies of Sir Keir Starmer have confirmed a Labour government would revive four bills, including legislation intended to phase out smoking and a separate measure to end no-fault evictions, strengthening the rights of tenants. The Labour leader is said to back the creation of an English football regulator, which is intended to improve financial resilience in the game, with reserve powers to redistribute cash from the Premier League to smaller clubs. Sir Keir Starmer has also promised to implement “Martyn’s law”, which would require venues and local authorities in the UK to deploy training and contingency plans in the event of a terrorist attack.
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Competitive funding of councils should only be used in ‘exceptional circumstances’ under the next government, a report has argued.
The Institute for Government (IfG) think-tank concluded the system should be streamlined into a smaller number of large, multi-year funds that can be topped up as cash becomes available, which would ‘strike the right balance between flexibility and central control and accountability’.
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The Lib Dems have pledged a £1bn-a-year investment to reverse cuts to the public health grant.
Under the pledge, health checks would be funded for 40-74 year olds, and infants and their mothers, and access to blood pressure tests would be widened.
The Lib Dems said there had been a 28% real terms cut to the grant to local authorities since 2015.
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Scrapping a key economic generation programme to help fund a new national service scheme would see the poorest parts of the UK lose “hundreds of millions” in essential funding, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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Scrapping a key economic generation programme to help fund a new national service scheme would see the poorest parts of the UK lose “hundreds of millions” in essential funding, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Under proposals put forward by the Conservative Party, all 18-year-olds would be expected to take part in either military training or community volunteering as part of a National Service programme costing £2.5bn a year.
The party said most of the cost would be met by abolishing the £1.5bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund – the economic development programme set up after the UK’s departure from the European Union – while the remaining £1bn would be paid for from improved tax enforcement.
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Lancashire County Council has confirmed that last week’s General Election announcement has stalled the finalising of its devolution deal.
The government announced in November 2023 that it would be willing to enter into a deal to bring devolution to the county, with this bringing together Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council, and Blackburn with Darwen Council. Once finally approved, the deal would allow the new Combined County Authority to hold more power, whilst also injecting further investment.
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Buckinghamshire councillors have rejected permission for a proposed film studio despite the plans receiving the backing of Hollywood royalty.
The council’s Strategic Sites Committee considered the application for Marlow Film Studios but rejected it over concerns relating to the impact on the local road network.
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Local government minister Simon Hoare has insisted he still wants councils to draw up unpopular productivity plans despite the calling of the General Election, The MJ understands.
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The County Councils Network (CCN) has called on the next government to provide financial sustainability and funding reforms for local authorities.
Ahead of the next general election on 4 July, the CCN has launched its cross-party ‘Manifesto for Counties’, providing a “blueprint” for “sustainable” county and unitary councils. It sets out four key foundations: sustainable long-term funding; an agenda for reform; localising and devolving; and tackling climate change.
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Leaders from the organisation’s Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent groups released a joint statement stressing that councils in county areas face a £2bn black hole in the coming two years.
“Whoever wins power, the next government inherits a situation with council finances that are extremely precarious,” the statement read.
“Without extra funding and fundamental reform, highly valued local services could reach breaking point, and even well-run local authorities could struggle to balance the books.
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Public health services such as sexual health and drug and alcohol programmes have seen their budgets reduced by more than other health care services, a think tank has revealed.
The Nuffield Trust found that NHS expenditure rose by an average of 3.1% annually over the past decade.
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Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that Labour will not include any additional tax rises in its manifesto aside from those already announced. The revenue raised will go towards funding for extra schoolteachers and reducing NHS waiting times but not to non-ringfenced public services with the Shadow Chancellor neither confirming nor denying that councils could receive less in grants. The Shadow Chancellor also said that there would be no budget until September should they win the upcoming election.
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Around 84,500 more childcare places and 40,000 extra staff are required by September 2025 if the Government is to deliver on its plans to increase early year childcare support.
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Unite has recommended its members reject the latest local government pay offer for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The trade union said the offer of a pay increase of at least £1,290 ‘fails to tackle poverty pay’ or ‘reverse the years of real terms pay cuts’.
‘Unite’s local government representatives have rightly called on members to reject yet another pitiful pay offer for council workers,’ said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has confirmed the further details of the areas that are to benefit from Levelling Up Partnership funding.
Across Boston, Stoke-on-Trent, Wakefield, the Scottish Borders, Tendring, investment will be allocated to regeneration projects that will support the government’s levelling up plans. Approximately £60 million will be committed by the government, covering everything from culture and the arts, to transport and housing.
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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said there will be no return to austerity under a Labour Government.
Experts have warned that local government could be left to shoulder the burden of public sector cuts in a new age of austerity, with a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank warning commitments by Labour and the Conservatives mean real-terms cuts will have to be made to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities without a higher overall spending envelope.
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Private school parents looking to avoid Labour’s VAT policy have been warned there are very few state school places available. It is reported that up to an estimated quarter of students could be removed from private schools if the policy goes ahead. There have been warnings about a growing shortage of school spaces across the country for a number of years. Councils, which have a duty to provide children with a full-time education, have no powers to open new schools or force local academies to expand, the Local Government Association said, as it called for councils to be given more powers to direct schools to accept children.
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The Conservatives have promised to raise the tax-free pension allowance via a "Triple Lock Plus" if they win the general election. Under the plans, the personal allowance for pensioners will increase at least 2.5 per cent or in line with the highest of earnings or inflation.
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A feature explores how the Government and local authorities have been selling assets to plug budget shortfalls.
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The state pension could become unaffordable between 2035 and 2045 if the triple lock is protected, according to the Adam Smith Institute. Pension spending has risen from 2 per cent of GDP in the early 1950s to more than 7 per cent today.
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Sir Patrick Vallance, the former chief scientific adviser to the Government, has said another pandemic is “inevitable” and urged the next government to focus on preparing for it as a priority.
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Freedom of Information figures reveal a 23 per cent rise in public health funerals between 2018 and 2023, in nearly two-thirds of council areas in England. Research by charity Quaker Social Action suggests that more than half of councils are not following guidelines on public health funerals. It said, for example, some do not allow family and friends to attend and has called for minimum statutory standards for public health funerals. The LGA said: "When arranging these funerals, councils will seek to ensure the religious beliefs or wishes of the deceased are respected and they are provided with a dignified funeral. In many cases the deceased has no family to arrange their funeral, so there is no-one to attend a service if one is held or to collect the ashes."
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Housing Secretary Michael Gove is one of a number of MPs yesterday who announced they will not be seeking re-election. Around one in five MPs have now said they are stepping down ahead of the General Election on 4 July.
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The Best Value Inspection (BVI) team at Tower Hamlets LBC has extended its work to include the council’s oversight of the General Election.
With the election set for 4 July, The MJ understands that the Government-commissioned BVI at the east London borough has been expanded to ensure additional scrutiny of how the national-level vote will be managed locally.
BVI officials have already reviewed how Tower Hamlets managed the recent London mayoral and assembly votes – and election scrutiny will form a key part of their final report to ministers. But a senior source today confirmed that, after prime minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to hold a snap General Election six months before the official end of his term, local inspectors will stay on.
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Conservative proposals to create a national service scheme could spell the end of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).
The reallocation of the funds has come under fire from opposition parties on the General Election trail.
Rishi Sunak has outlined plans that would see all 18-year-olds complete a year of military service or 25 days of community volunteering, to be introduced by the end of the next Parliament.
The lion’s share of the funding would come from £1.5bn previously committed to the UKSPF, which replaced EU funding post-Brexit, with dedicated allocations for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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Devon CC and Torbay Council have sought “clarity” from officials after the timing of the general election put the timetable to establish a new county combined authority into doubt.
The two councils formally submitted their devolution proposal at the beginning of May and had expected that the new combined county authority would be established by the autumn.
The new CCA will gain control of £14.8m from the shared prosperity fund over three years. It will also get £16m in new capital funding to support housing and net zero priorities.
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Local government minister Simon Hoare has admitted the funding formula for councils is ‘all but broken’ and called for a ‘cross-party solution’.
He spoke in a debate on council funding called by Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire.
Morgan, a vice-president of the Local Government Association, argued that ‘rural areas are struggling perhaps more than urban areas’ and that funding had ‘lost touch with reality on the cost of delivering services, and indeed to some extent on the level of need’.
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ITV Tonight has investigated how councils across the country are struggling with their budgets. The LGA said council core spending power has reduced by a quarter since 2010, with its survey of councils revealing 85 per cent were worried they'd need to relook at service delivery.
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Trade union Unison has advised its members to reject this year’s “disappointing” pay offer.
Unions had asked for "£3,000 or 10% whichever is higher" when they submitted the claim earlier this year.
Last week the National Employers offered a pay increase of £1,290 which equates to 5.77% for the lowest paid, from 1 April 2024.
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Councils have been told to identify an extra 100,000 bedspaces for asylum seekers this year amid Home Office expectations of a further surge in arrivals, The MJ can reveal.
Senior council sources have questioned whether they can meet the Government’s 2024 targets – sent to the UK’s 11 regional strategic migration partnerships – without hampering their ability to meet other housing needs.
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Elections officers face a raft of reforms to implement as voters nationwide prepare to go to the polls in July.
Changes introduced in the Elections Act has added to workloads for teams, who in some cases are still engaged in post-polls work and reporting from this month’s local elections.
Chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, Peter Stanyon, said: ‘This General Election will be the first time voter ID is used across Scotland, the first time new Parliamentary constituencies are in place and the first time UK citizens overseas can register to vote however long ago they left the UK.’
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The author of the Government’s independent review of children’s care has warned ‘not enough has changed’ since he proposed reforms two years ago.
Former executive chair of children’s services specialist Foundations, Josh MacAlister, who led a Government-commissioned review in 2021 and published his final report the following year, had urged a ‘radical reset’ of children’s care away from costly and often poor crisis intervention.
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The Local Government Association (LGA) will decide whether to axe its annual conference ‘in the coming days’ in light of the clash with the General Election.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a General Election for 4 July – the last day of its conference - last night.
In a message to councils, LGA chief executive Joanna Killian said Labour chair Shaun Davies - a prospective Parliamentary candidate - will step away from his role to ‘focus on running for election’.
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Windsor and Maidenhead BC has warned it could be facing effective bankruptcy if financial support is not agreed soon.
The borough has begun talks with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in the hope of securing exceptional financial support.
Windsor and Maidenhead, which limited all non-essential spending in September, said it had uncovered unexpected historical costs.
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The timing of the general election means returning officers need to “squeeze” six months’ work into six weeks, but could herald positive results for council budgets because the new government will have more time to conduct a spending review.
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Local authorities take very different approaches to deciding whether potholes get fixed, which means many go unrepaired, according to the RAC and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Almost a third of the 206 councils in Britain with responsibility for roads fail to state any criteria online for repairing potholes, while 35% list specific pothole depths and sometimes widths that would trigger a repair.
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Public service leaders have urged the political parties to think seriously about long-term reforms as the general election gets under way.
Sector influencers have warned the dire state of public services after years of austerity means clear plans need to be put before voters.
As Westminster winds up essential business, campaign teams were cautioned not to fudge commitments in the same way as Theresa May did with the care commitment in her election manifesto that was panned by social care experts.
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Many potholes are left unrepaired despite being reported because some councils only fix them if they are a minimum size, according to new analysis.
More than a third (35%) of local authorities in Britain state the size a pothole must be before they will act, research by the RAC and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme found.
The most common depth stated is 4cm (1.6in)(54 councils), but in the case of six councils – Warwickshire, Torbay, Thurrock, Nottingham, Torfaen and South Lanarkshire – potholes need to be at least 5cm (2in) deep to be considered for repair.
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UK inflation fell to 2.3 per cent in the year to April, official figures show. It marks a fall from 3.2 per cent in March, according to the Office for National Statistics, and is the lowest level in almost three years.
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The International Monetary Fund’s annual health check on the UK said “difficult choices” lay ahead because of a looming £30 billion hole in the public finances. In order to stop debt rising, the IMF said the UK Treasury may need to consider a range of potentially unpopular revenue-raising measures including widening the scope of VAT, road pricing, scrapping the triple lock on the state pension, raising more from inheritance tax and capital gains tax, and wider user charges for public services.
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Proposed deadlines for future local audits could interfere with elections if they are scheduled during pre-election periods, warned the Local Government Association's economy and resources board last week.
Senior advisor in finance at the LGA Bevis Ingram told the board last week that some of the proposed dates for publishing audited accounts could mean qualified or disclaimed opinions would be published in the weeks leading up to an election.
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The right-to-buy scheme has been a "broken set of promises" the mayor of South Yorkshire CA said as he and another Labour mayor backed calls for reform to the system..
Earlier this month Andy Burnham (Lab) mayor of Greater Manchester said called for the scheme should be suspended to allow "councils the breathing space they need to replenish their stock" after unveiling plans to build 10,000 council homes.
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Public participation will not be allowed at North Yorkshire’s budget meetings as part of a series of changes to the council’s constitution.
The Conservative-run council, launched as a unitary in April 2023, will have its first dedicated budget meeting next year after this year’s budget was approved at a quarterly full council meeting that lasted eight hours.
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Three-quarters of councillors believe the housing crisis has become significantly worse in the past year, according to a major survey of planning authorities in England and Wales.
In the survey of 416 planning committee members by communications consultancy SEC Newgate, two-thirds said the housing crisis in their local area was severe.
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Enforcement agents managed to recoup less than a fifth of that debt, as people struggled to pay their bills during the cost of living crisis.
LBC asked local authorities about the amount of unpaid debt they’ve passed on to enforcement agents in the last three financial years. This included bills for council tax, parking fines, non-payment of business rates and housing arrears.
The uncollected debt is exacerbating the pressure on councils’ finances.
Of the 235 which provided their data, 70 asked enforcement agents to recoup more than £10m last year, with two chasing debts of more than £100m.
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Rishi Sunak has vowed to "fight for every vote" as he called an early UK general election for Thursday 4 July.
The PM made the announcement in a rain-soaked speech outside 10 Downing Street, as he bids to win a fifth term in office for the Conservatives.
The surprise move overturned expectations of an autumn poll, which might have given the Tories a better chance of closing the gap with Labour.
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Some councils have warned that they may have to cut services due to "unprecedented" cost rises from the internal drainage board levy.
Councils are charged a levy to fund IDBs to manage water levels in their area. Previously the funding for IDBs was included in the revenue support grant from central government but since 2016 councils have been expected to fund it through council tax, which they have not been able to increase at a rate to match the increase in the levy without holding a referendum.
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Labour will deliver "more social and affordable homes" through its New Towns Code, its deputy leader has said.
Speaking today at UKREiiF Conference in Leeds, Ms Rayner revealed plans for the code which sets out criteria that developers must meet on new settlements with a "gold standard aim of 40%" of social and affordable homes.
She said: "New towns are just one way we get good quality affordable homes built in the national interest. Our local housing recovery plan will reverse the Conservatives' damage changes to planning.
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‘Too many’ councils are failing to engage with telecoms giant BT as it works to switch customers to digital phone lines, the firm has said.
BT urged councils to ensure they share data to protect vulnerable telecare users as it delayed its switchover timetable to February 2027.
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Homes England has announced that its provisional figures for the year show that it has exceeded its annual targets, despite poor market conditions.
As the agency holding the responsibility for housing and regeneration across the country, Homes England works alongside local, regional and national organisations. This has led to achievements such as the completion of more than 32,000 homes, beating the annual target of 29,641.
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The introduction of productivity plans is an "attempt to try and defend not funding local government properly," a council chief executive has told LGC.
In February, the final local government settlement confirmed that in return for an additional £600m in funding, councils would need to set out how they will "improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure" in productivity plans.
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Council bosses have hit back at the Department for Transport (DfT) over plans to restrict their ability to generate surpluses from traffic contraventions, calling the plans misguided and even questioning whether the Government violated pre-election rules.
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Analysis of government and Office for National Statistics data has shown that council tax for an average home in England increased 50 per cent faster than inflation between 1998 and 2023. An interactive map shows how much council tax has risen in different areas and what the total amounts to over the last 25 years. The LGA said: “While council tax is an important funding stream, it has never been the solution to the long-term pressures facing councils, raising different amounts in different parts of the country – unrelated to need - and adding to the financial pressures facing households.”
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The Government’s new “towns tsar” Adam Hawksbee, who is overseeing the implementation of the “new plan for towns” in 75 communities across the UK, with local people controlling how Whitehall money is spent, has described being struck by the unique problems and solutions in each place he has visited.
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Council employees have been offered a pay increase of at least £1,290, which equates to a 5.8% rise for the lowest paid.
Employers also offered chief executives and senior officers a 2.5% pay increase from 1 April 2024.
Chair of the national employers for local government services, Cllr Tim Roca, said they were ‘acutely aware’ of the added pressure this would place on ‘already hard-pressed council finances.’
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Experts have called for a 'complete overhaul' of council tax as MailOnline can today reveal that 25 years of stealth tax rises have cost the average Briton nearly £11,000.
Analysis of Government and ONS data shows that council tax - dubbed 'one of Britain's worst designed taxes' by Resolution Foundation economist Adam Corlett - for an average home in England rose 50 per cent faster than inflation between 1998 and 2023.
MailOnline has created an interactive map and graphic so you can find out how much council tax has risen above inflation in your area and what the total amounts to over the last 25 years.
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Some schools in England are sending police to the homes of children who are persistently absent, or warning them their parents may go to prison if their attendance doesn’t improve, the Observer has learned.
Headteachers say they are now under intense pressure from the government to turn around the crisis in attendance, with a record 150,000 children at state schools classed as severely absent in 2022-23. From September, all state schools in England will have to share their attendance records every day with the Department for Education.
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Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said she is in favour of councils having the power to cap rents.
The measure would mean local authorities could prevent landlords from raising rents above a set proportion every year.
A similar policy introduced in Scotland by Nicola Sturgeon drove landlords out of the market, reduced the supply of housing and forced up rents.
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Analysis of NHS data reveals 28,655 people aged 65 and over passed away waiting for social care in 2022/23, a figure equal to 79 deaths a day.
Almost 30,000 desperate pensioners die every year waiting for help from Britain’s broken social care system, figures show.
Campaigners fear many of the frightened and vulnerable begging for assistance spent their final weeks and months in distress and discomfort because supply simply cannot meet demand.
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Buses are the most commonly used form of public transport in England - yet in recent years routes have been disappearing at an alarming rate.
Outside of London, bus services have dropped by 50% since 2008, according to research by Friends of the Earth, external, with people on lower incomes and those without a car disproportionately affected.
Bus use plummeted during the pandemic but even before then it was steadily declining in areas outside the capital.
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Nottingham City Council still has “significant shortcomings” in budgetary control and its underlying level of spend, with the authority facing a “stark financial challenge in 2025/26 alone”.
Those insights are included in the final report from the departing Improvement and Assurance Board, chaired by Sir Tony Redmond, on progress at Nottingham City Council. The report sets out the board’s views on Nottingham’s improvement journey since it was appointed three years ago, with the board leaving following the appointment of commissioners.
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Four councils could be at risk of Government intervention as they dig in over not undergoing a corporate peer challenge (CPC).
The Local Government Association (LGA) had refused to name and shame the councils that have still not committed to a date to have a CPC – 13 years after the programme was launched.
However, the LGA has now been forced to disclose under the Freedom of Information Act the names of the remaining councils that have not yet booked in to have a CPC – Bromley and Hillingdon LBCs, Leicestershire CC and Dartford BC.
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The journalist who wrote the controversial league tables story based on data compiled by the Office for Local Government (Oflog) has defended the article.
The Times journalist who wrote the piece, Andrew Ellson, admitted the tables were ‘not perfect but we believe they still give a useful indication of who is performing well and who is not’.
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Councils should be given more funding to play a greater role in developing infrastructure projects, according to Government advisers.
A report published today by the National Infrastructure Commission said local government needed increased and more stable funding in areas such as flooding, transport, recycling and net zero.
Chief among its recommendations was to give all local authorities with transport responsibilities the same five-year funding settlements offered to mayoral combined authorities.
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Council tax reforms will not come into force until 2028, the Welsh Government has announced.
Finance secretary Rebecca Evans said five-yearly revaluations would be introduced from 2028 after taking into account at feedback to a Welsh Government consultation.
While two-thirds of respondents backed reform, a third opted for minimal changes and across the slowest timeframe, compared to about a quarter favouring expanded reform and the quickest timetable.
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The Government has agreed in principle up to £50m of exceptional financial support for Lambeth LBC for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Lambeth joins 19 other local authorities that have agreed in principle capitalisation directions.
The council’s financial difficulties are largely related to costs associated with a redress scheme for historic child abuse cases.
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Somerset Council has accepted 201 redundancy applications, which it said would save more than £8m a year.
It is the first part of the council’s plans to cut £40m from its annual pay bill by reducing its total staff, including senior directors, by 25%.
The 201 voluntary redundancies will cost £12.8m and councillors have been recommended to approve the 49 redundancies where costs will exceed £100,000.
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The government has been criticised for not seeming "very urgent" in its approach to appointing a chair for the Office for Local Government, over a month after the departure of the interim postholder.
Former interim chair Lord Morse stepped down in March due to "unexpected health reasons", and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities has yet to announce his successor.
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Coca-Cola has been accused of misleading consumers over its plastic pledges following an investigation. A Channel 4 Dispatches documentary has found the soft drink giant's bottling partners sell two billion plastic bottles and two billion cans a year in the UK, equating to 65,000 tonnes of single-use plastic. In 2017, Coca-Cola said it aimed to recover every bottle it sells by 2030. Speaking about the cost implications of this waste, LGA environment spokesperson Cllr Darren Rodwell said: “For every penny we are spending on waste, actually, we're not spending it on supporting people. That's a real cost to us as a society.”
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The Government’s changes to net zero policies have delayed progress on vital infrastructure which is needed for economic growth, its advisers have said. Sir John Armitt, the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, said good progress had been made on renewable energy in the past five years, but changes to key policies, including postponing a scheme to boost heat pump takeup, had created uncertainty and delay.
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More than 2,000 households a month are facing homelessness in England because private landlords say they are selling up, with some blaming uncertainty caused by government delays to renting reforms. Official figures show that more than four in 10 families who have asked councils for temporary housing after a private landlord ended their tenancy are in the predicament because the owner told them they were putting the property on the market.
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Free school meal allowances are not enough for students from lower-income backgrounds to buy healthy school lunches, research suggests. The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity, involved 42 pupils aged between 11 and 15 at seven schools across the UK, with pupils keeping food diaries which detailed what they bought, the quality of the food and whether they felt full for the rest of the school day.
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Thousands of children in England with complex needs are missing out on support as councils struggle to meet care plan deadlines, findings from BBC News suggests. Councils have a legal time limit of 20 weeks, in most cases, to issue an education, health and care plan (EHCP). Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said councils "do their best" to meet the time limit in the face of "increasing demand and insufficient funding".
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The National Employers have made a “full and final” pay offer to around 1.5 million council workers of at least £1,290. The deal equates to a rise of 5.77 per cent for the lowest paid from April 1 this year, unions were told. Chair Cllr Tim Roca said: “The national employers are acutely aware of the additional pressure this year’s offer will place on already hard-pressed council finances, as it would need to be paid for from existing budgets. However, they believe their offer is fair to employees, given the wider economic backdrop.”
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Local authority chief executives have been offered a pay increase of 2.5% by the National Employers from 1 April 2024, matching the percentage to offered to those at the top main pay scale.
The Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers welcomed the move but is not yet in a position to accept the offer.
Yesterday council employees were offered an increase of £1,290 which equates to 5.77% of the lowest paid, with those at the top pay spine offered 2.5%.
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A parliamentary bill that would require additional scrutiny for council officer roles paying more than £100,000 has been criticised as "ridiculous" by members of the Local Government Association's economy and resources board.
The Local Government (Pay Accountability) Bill is a private members bill proposed by Conservative MP Paul Bristow to "ensure transparency and accountability on council salaries" and has reached the committee stage in the Commons. It would require every council officer role with salary above £100,000 to be approved by full council before the position is advertised or appointed.
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Coventry City Council’s wards will be altered and boundary divisions for Surrey and Staffordshire county councils are also set to change.
The Local Government Boundary Commission reviewed the three council areas to ensure councillors represent around the same number of voters.
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Around 30% of local authorities are not "confident" they will be able to meet their statutory duties in adult social care next year, a new survey has revealed.
This year marks ten years since the Care Act received royal assent, which set out local authorities' legal duties to provide care and support.
A survey of social care authorities by the Local Government Association, published yesterday, and just revealed that only 8% are "very confident" they will be able to meet the legal requirements in adult social care for 2025-26.
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An expert child safeguarding panel has joined calls for a statutory register of children who are electively home educated.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel looked at 27 incidents involving 41 children whose parents had chosen to educate them at home and who were subjected to sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect in 2020 and 2021.
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A levy on hotel guests is set to be introduced in a costal region for the first time this summer, which is expected to generate £2m a year for placemaking activity.
Hotel owners narrowly approved the creation a Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID) on Friday.
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Free school meal allowances are not enough for students from lower-income backgrounds to buy healthy school lunches, research suggests.
The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity (ECO), involved 42 pupils aged between 11 and 15 at seven schools across the UK.
The students were provided with a daily budget that was equivalent to the free school meal (FSM) allowance at their school, which was between £2.15 and £2.70. The pupils kept food diaries that detailed what they bought, the quality of the food and whether they felt full for the rest of the school day.
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Veterans of one of the boldest experiments in public service reform reflect on lessons for a future government
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Government commitments mean real-terms cuts will have to be made to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities without a higher overall spending envelope, a report has warned.
The report on NHS spending by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think-tank said the Government’s commitments under the NHS England workforce plan, which has been endorsed by the Conservatives and Labour, implied real term funding growth of around 3.6% per year.
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Somerset Council’s waste collection contract is at risk after Suez disclosed ‘significant losses’ and said it may have to end the deal early.
The local authority has agreed for its chief executive to negotiate with the company to establish the minimum increase to annual payments it would accept to keep providing services.
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The Liberal Democrats have criticised the Government for failing to increase the income threshold for free school meals in line with inflation.
Families in the UK who receive universal credit can apply for free school meals, but a household income threshold of £7,400 a year (after tax) was introduced in 2018.
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A new service designed to help long-term sick people back into work will be piloted in 15 areas across England, DWP Secretary Mel Stride has announced.
The WorkWell programme is part of the Government’s sweeping changes to the welfare system, including a review of payments to people with mental health conditions, which prompted accusations of a “full-on assault on disabled people”.
From October, the £64 million pilot will connect people with a health condition or disability to local support services including physiotherapy and counselling to help them stay in or return to work.
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Dementia will cost the economy £90 billion by 2040 as the population ages, researchers have said.
The largest study of the economic impact of the disease on Britain revealed the cost will more than double from £42 billion a year to £90 billion a year without action.
The economic burden consists of costs to the NHS and social care, as well as the loss of work and productivity of patients, their families and unpaid carers.
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Less than two weeks ago, some us in England went to the polls for this year’s local elections.
Reflecting the absurdly centralised and Westminster-focused nature of our political system, most of the commentary since then has obsessed about what these elections mean for the standing of the parties nationally and whether we have gleaned anything more about the likely shape of the next parliament...
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Following the local elections, Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has written about the “opaque” system of local government funding. He said: “The problem for local democracy is that there is now little relationship between the council tax rates in a local area and what the relevant authorities are able to deliver. That’s because the way in which the central grants are allocated has become essentially arbitrary. Under those circumstances, it is hard for voters to have a real sense of how effective their local council is.”
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Research from the Alzheimer’s Society has revealed that by 2040, yearly dementia costs to the UK economy will rise from £42 billion a year to £90 billion, due to an ageing population raising the numbers of people living with dementia from 1 million to 1.6 million in 2040. This cost burden will fall on the NHS and social care, but also on unpaid carers with the demand expected to rise 46 per cent in the next 16 years.
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The Department of Work and Pensions has announced £64 million in funding for a new service, WorkWell, which will be trialled in 15 areas across the UK from October. The programme will change how fit notes are treated, with the claimant being required to speak to their employment adviser who will attempt to find adjustments and treatment for the condition so they can remain in work.
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Energy-from-waste schemes are being included in the Government’s emissions trading scheme from 2028, under which polluters will have to pay for the carbon dioxide they emit. This is despite objections from councils which face significant bills for the waste they send to incinerators. Cllr Darren Rodwell, environment spokesperson for the LGA said: “We are concerned about the potential financial impacts to councils. For the scheme to succeed it is critical that the costs fall on the industries producing the material in the first place, rather than the council that collects, processes and disposes of the waste.”
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A Top Gear presenter has shared his plan to fix Britain's pothole’s. Chris Harris has said that local authorities don't have the budget required to buy the equipment needed to repair roads and he urged the Government to allocate more funding to road maintenance. An LGA spokesperson said: “Currently 31 times more per mile is spent by government on maintaining motorways and national trunk roads. Councils do what they can with the resources they have to tackle the £16.3 billion local roads repair backlog and against competing pressures from other services.”
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The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children arriving in Kent has risen by 59 per cent in a year, as the county council says it is at risk of being "overwhelmed". They said a national scheme to transfer children to other local authorities was still "inadequate", despite the number of transfers increasing. The LGA warned that while councils worked "extremely hard" to support UAS children, funding and recruitment challenges across children's social care were making the situation "increasingly difficult".
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Councils in England will be able to collect recyclables, such as plastic, metal, glass, paper, and card, in one container as part of the Simpler Recycling reforms, Recycling Minister Robbie Moore has confirmed.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) today confirmed the next steps of the reforms, which aim to put an end to the ‘patchwork of different bin collections across England’.
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Somerset replaced its two-tiers with one last year but with news of it making deals with parishes, reporter Mark Smulian asks is it now about to have 280 tiers and lead the abolition of council tax capping?
The council warned last year its viability was at risk and it later gained exceptional financial support.
This though was not enough to safeguard services and leader Bill Revans (Lib Dem) asked all 279 parish and town councils whether they would take on some.
Somerset had spotted a financial wheeze which – while not new – is not known to have been offered on such a scale.
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Local pride and sovereignty stand in the way of voluntary consolidation among the 86 funds, writes the tri-borough director of treasury and pensions at Westminster City Council.
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Two new town councils could be established in North Yorkshire a year later than previously planned.
Harrogate and Scarborough are currently the only areas within the unitary's boundaries without a parish council.
These lower tier authorities have been permitted "greater responsibilities" as part of one of the "central pledges" of North Yorkshire's unitarisation, the council has said.
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Last year saw the 175th anniversary of the Public Health Act, which introduced a framework for local areas to improve sanitary conditions, food safety and housing.
The Act recognised that improving people’s environment would improve their health – an approach recommended in Chadwick’s report into sanitation levels amongst the poor. Chadwick argued that the cost of improving living conditions would far outweigh the cost of ‘poor relief’ given to families of workers who died from infectious diseases, particularly evident during the cholera outbreaks of the time.
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A ‘small share’ of around 5% of locally-generated National Insurance (NI) revenue should be devolved as part of tax-sharing pilots with leading combined authorities, the Institute for Government (IfG) think-tank has argued in a report.
The report said devolving just 5% of NI contributions revenue on a per capita basis would amount to around £350m for a large organisation such as Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
It read: ‘There is good evidence that associates tax devolution more strongly with improved economic outcomes than devolution of policy levers alone, which at least in part reflects the additional incentives governments have to drive growth when they receive some of the proceeds from it.
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Lancashire County Council has announced an emergency £5m to deal with the ‘potholes menace’ ruining the county’s roads.
The funding boost was agreed as an urgent decision by the council's cabinet and will bring the county's highways budget for the year to over £37m.
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The next government must extend devolution to 85% of England to address an ‘incomplete patchwork of mismatched deals’, a think-tank has argued.
A report by the Institute for Government (IfG) includes 30 proposals that could be implemented over the next parliament.
The IfG said devolution to remaining large urban areas like Leicester and Southampton should be prioritised and called for a legal right for all parts of England to take on devolved powers.
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A new multi-million-pound investment in repairing potholes and boosting road drainage has been agreed by Devon council members.
Devon County Council’s cabinet was set to discuss a £10m cash injection for pothole repairs and pre-emptive road drainage work.
However, on hearing that the county budget for 2023/24 has come in underspent by £5.2m, an extra £2m was agreed taking the overall investment to £12m.
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A Top Gear star has shared his two-point plan to fix Britain's pothole pandemic.
First of all, he suggested the use of new pothole-repairing robots which can fill in the craters quickly and efficiently.
Machines like the ARRES PREVENT or JCB's Pothole Pro use AI tech to identify and fix damage to the roads before they can even open up into dangerous fissures.
However, Chris claimed that local authorities don't have the budget required to buy the gadgets.
As such, he urged the Government to allocate more funding to road maintenance with a view to having a fleet of the marvellous autonomous motors patrolling the roads.
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ONS figures, published this morning, confirm that the UK has left the technical recession that it slipped into at the end of 2023 when the economy contracted by 0.4 per cent over the year, with the economy growing 0.6 per cent in the first three months of 2024. This figure marks a return to growth in the UK economy, which has seen weak growth in the last two years.
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Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, has expressed optimism that, as inflation falls close to its targets in the next few months, an interest rate cut will follow in June at the earliest, with rates holding at 5.25 per cent. He added that more evidence of inflation staying low would be needed before a decision was made but described news on inflation, currently at 3.2 percent, as encouraging.
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More than four in 10 council homes sold under right to buy are now owned by private landlords, new research has revealed.
Freedom of Information requests sent by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) found that 41% of all council homes sold under the right to buy scheme are now being let on the private market.
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Calls to devolve England’s Right to Buy policy are gathering momentum, with a centre-left think-tank now urging ministers to hand powers to councils.
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) today reported that a ‘suite of powers’ over housing policy should be devolved from Westminster to local authorities, which would give councillors the ‘ability to make decisions regarding the future of their council housing stock and give them greater control over the tenure balance of homes in their area’.
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Sector figures have been lobbied to withdraw engagement and co-operation with the local government watchdog after a national newspaper used its data to rank councils, The MJ understands.
Amid the fallout from The Times story, Local Government Association (LGA) chief executive Joanna Killian is among those to have been urged by a number of angry council chiefs to halt any collaboration with the Office for Local Government (Oflog) after it failed to publicly rebut last week’s controversial article.
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Local election results prove the big parties are not as popular as they used to be, writes the director of LSE London.
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Councils in England will be required to collect unrecyclable residual household waste at least fortnightly, recycling minister Robbie Moore has said.
Mr Moore confirmed the government indent to table regulations intend to table regulations to introduce 'simpler recycling' later this year and that councils would also remain able to collect multiple materials together.
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New schools for 2,000 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are to open in 16 areas across England.
The schools will be supported by an initial £105m, announced in this year's Spring Budget.
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Households in Rutland, Nottingham and Dorset are facing the highest council tax bills in England this year, according to a new analysis.
Research into council tax increases by rebate experts Rift found that Rutland tops the list with Band D households paying £2,543, followed by Nottingham at £2,530 and Dorset at £2,504.
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Without extra funding, the future of England's social housing looks ‘bleak’, council bosses have warned.
The warning follows a call from the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee for the Government to invest in the social housing sector and ensure 90,000 homes for social rent can be built in England every year.
A new report by the LUHC Committee sets out how financial pressures have seen providers build less social housing, exacerbating a ‘chronic’ shortage that has left a record 1.2 million households on council waiting lists in England.
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Somerset Council has passed on several functions to a local town council after it narrowly managed to set a balanced budget with a pledge to devolve powers.
Services like street cleansing, road sweeping, the management of open spaces, market rights and carnival clean-ups are now in the remit of Bridgwater Town Council.
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The next government must relinquish centralised control to realise ambitions for growth, a report concluded today.
Think-tank Localis’ report said devolution of powers to local government was needed to boost housebuilding and promote long-term economic growth.
It argued best practice in regeneration at a local level could not only achieve growth, but help to improve health and tackle climate change.
Localis said reforming how local government was funded was key, and recommended a return to regional spatial planning and establishment of ‘regional planning offices’ to pool resources.
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Whitehall’s siloed approach to city centre renewal has led to ‘real frustration’ from councils, slowed down projects and increased costs, a local authority chief has warned.
Addressing the House of Lords Built Environment Committee today, Sunderland City Council chief executive Patrick Melia said the sector’s ability to regenerate Britain’s town centres had been hit by the ‘siloed approach across government departments’.
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The Government’s flagship policy to improve maths skills among adults has reportedly been scaled back for the second time in as many years. Last year £41 million of the Multiply project’s £130 million budget went unspent by councils, with the money returned to central government due to spending rules. The LGA said: “Councils worked quickly with the Government to plan the Multiply offer for adults through local partnerships to identify and engage new learners. However, a new service like this can take time to build up, which is why multi-year flexible funding is vital to delivering it effectively and to improve services for communities.”
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Jeremy Hunt and his team are reportedly considering not holding another autumn statement before the next election, amid uncertainty about the public finances. It is understood the Chancellor may opt to include further tax-cutting pledges in the next Conservative manifesto, rather than holding a final so-called “fiscal event” which would require a detailed analysis of the public finances by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
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Parking charges have more than doubled in the space of a year for some premium spaces, while some councils have been putting up their parking prices by 20 per cent or more, according to new analysis.
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Staff shortages and funding cuts are causing a “full-blown crisis” in special needs education for children and young people in England, according to school leaders who say they are struggling to give pupils the support they require. The union NAHT’s survey of 1,000 school leaders found that 78 per cent said they had cut back on support staff such as teaching assistants within the last three years, and 84 per cent said they also expected to do so within the next three years. LGA Children and Young People Board Chair Cllr Louise Gittins said: “Councils’ high needs deficits currently stand at an estimated £1.9 billion, rising to £3.6 billion by 2025 with no intervention. We urge the Government to write off these deficits.”
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Of the 107 councils which held elections on Thursday, 102 have declared their full results, with the Conservatives losing more than half of the seats it has been defending so far and losing control of 12 councils. Labour won control of eight councils as it gained 173 seats, while the Liberal Democrats gained 100 seats, the Greens 67, and Reform UK picked up two. Labour also had successes in the North East, York and North Yorkshire and East Midlands mayoral votes, while Conservative Lord Ben Houchen was re-elected as the mayor of Tees Valley. Further results are expected over the weekend, including key mayoral contests in London and the West Midlands.
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Councils’ next finance settlement may have to be announced before a Spending Review amid ‘extremely accelerated’ demands after the General Election, experts have warned.
A report by the Institute for Government (IfG) think-tank said the likely General Election in autumn or winter this year meant councils faced a race against time to agree their budgets for 2025-26.
The UK’s current multi-year Spending Review period runs until the end of the 2024-25 financial year in March.
But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out publishing a new review, which gives public bodies certainty over their finances, until after the General Election.
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Local government debt has increased by 78% since 2010 as councils attempted to make up for cuts to Government funding, research has revealed.
Analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found the debt held by councils across the country increased by £52bn to £119bn between 2010 and 2023.
During this period, local authorities took advantage of relaxed borrowing restrictions and low interest rates to finance property investments as they tried to compensate for a 60% reduction in Government funding.
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Greater Manchester’s re-elected mayor has called for powers to suspend Right to Buy on new homes under plans to build 10,000 houses across the region.
Andy Burnham, who was re-elected as the region’s powerful mayor for a third term last week, wants to pause the divisive Right to Buy programme for all new-build social housing because he believes the potential loss of units discourages councils from building.
Under Right to Buy, social housing tenants can purchase their homes at heavily discounted rates to get onto the housing ladder after a qualifying period.
However, the policy has reduced social housing units in England from 5.5 million in 1979 to 4.4 million today while waiting lists have soared to 1.2 million.
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Councils spent £45m over the past three years on external legal advice relating to planning appeals, according to a freedom of information request.
The new data found that each local authority spent an average of £45,000 per year on legal advice between 2020/21 and 2022/23.
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The Conservatives suffered significant losses in Essex last week.
It lost 12 seats to lose control at Basildon BC, while being wiped out at Castle Point BC, which it had run until 2021.
Elections in the adjacent unitaries saw the Tories likely to lose their year-old minority administration at Southend-on-Sea City Council after losing four seats, while Labour took control of troubled Thurrock Council after a series of financial scandals.
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More than a fifth (21 per cent) of the 280 councillors who responded to a New Statesman poll said it was likely or very likely that their local authority would declare bankruptcy in the coming five years. This correlates broadly with similar data from the LGA’s recent finance surveys. When asked if their local authorities had adequate funding, 97 per cent - including 82 per cent of Conservatives - said no.
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Analysis from planning consultancy Lichfields suggests that in recent months 15 local authorities have cut the number of homes they ¬intend to build over the next decade by 10 per cent on their previous plans.
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The Institute for Government is warning that government departments face a “cliff edge” moment in December if the incoming administration after the general election does not launch a spending review immediately. The next election is expected to be held in either October or November this year, which the institute said would be the closest “to the point at which government departments’ budgets expire than at any time in over 40 years”. This leaves government departments, local authorities and devolved administrations not knowing their budgets from April 2025 and creates a risk of delayed and inefficient spending on services and projects.
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The president of the Association of Local Authorities’ Treasurer Societies and executive director of resources & section 151 officer at Oxfordshire County Council, Lorna Baxter, calls for a review of legislation and statutory guidance and a refocus on what the purpose of local government should be.
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Research undertaken by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has shown a 78 per cent increase in the debt burden on local authorities since 2010. This research illustrates the scale of the pressure on councils amid rising interest rates and the demands on services. LGA Chair Cllr Shaun Davies, said: "Councils continue to transform services, but it is unsustainable to expect them to keep doing more for less in the face of unprecedented cost and demand pressures."
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The Office for Local Government’s (Oflog) ‘lack of action to correct misleading information’ in rankings compiled by The Times ‘calls into question its ability to inform,’ senior sector politicians have told communities secretary Michael Gove.
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Cheshire East Council has been forced to close a council-run school meal service due to ‘significant budget pressures’.
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The Office for National Statistics has released its figures on public sector productivity for the final quarter of 2023, with numbers revealing that productivity dropped in comparison with the same period in 2022.
Published today, the report outlines how productivity across the sector was 2.3% lower than it was between October and December 2022, whilst it also fell by approximately 1% when compared to the third quarter (July to September) last year. The review itself serves to improve the ways that productivity in the public sector is measured, calculated by the volume of services that were delivered to communities.
Healthcare and education dominate the reporting of these figures, due to their size when compared to other such services.
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The Office for Local Government’s (Oflog) ‘lack of action to correct misleading information’ in rankings compiled by The Times ‘calls into question its ability to inform,’ senior sector politicians have told communities secretary Michael Gove.
A letter to Gove from the chair and vice-chairs of the Local Government Association said they were ‘very concerned’ that neither Oflog nor the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities ‘stepped in swiftly to correct inaccuracies and misleading content’ after The Times used 21 of the watchdog’s 27 metrics to rank England’s 318 councils in the five areas it currently monitors – adult social care, corporate and finance, planning, roads and waste management.
The politicians said the focus of The Times on a ‘small number of indicators… misses considerable nuances’ and the method used by the national newspaper to compile them into a league table was ‘fundamentally flawed’.
Calling for an ‘urgent meeting’ with Gove, they warned Oflog’s lack of action would have a ‘consequent impact on trust in the sector’ and asked him how that and the sector’s shattered confidence in the watchdog could be rebuilt.
The letter read: ‘Our warnings about the use of data and Oflog’s ability to advise and brief the media about what the data does and doesn’t show have now come to pass.
‘The fact that this happened during the pre-election period when the ability for councils to adequately respond is curtailed has made this situation worse.’
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Social care visa applications have plummeted since the introduction of a ban on overseas workers bringing dependants into the UK, according to the latest figures.
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Voters in parts of England are heading to the polls today to elect councillors and mayors in the local elections. They are considered the last test of voters' opinion before the next general election, which is expected later this year.
Police and crime commissioners will also be chosen across England and Wales
Mayoral elections are taking place in London and nine other "metro" areas across England. Mayors will be chosen for the first time in the East Midlands, the North East, and York and North Yorkshire. Voters will also choose the mayor of Salford, the directly-elected leader of the city council
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Local government debt has increased by 78% since 2010 as councils attempted to make up for cuts to Government funding, research has revealed.
Analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found the debt held by councils across the country increased by £52bn to £119bn between 2010 and 2023.
During this period, local authorities took advantage of relaxed borrowing restrictions and low interest rates to finance property investments as they tried to compensate for a 60% reduction in Government funding. However, the subsequent increase in interest rates has meant that local authorities are now spending increasing amounts servicing debts.
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Data has been published by the Office for Local Government (Oflog) measuring councils in 27 categories in five main areas: waste management, corporate and finance, adult social care, planning and roads. In an analysis of the data, the Times has compared council performance. The LGA said mechanisms were already in place, such as LG Inform, to help councils learn from each other. Cllr Abi Brown, Chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said: “Councils continue to face huge financial challenges, with individual authorities facing competing demands on budgets that are often unique to their local area and specific circumstances.”
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The number of asylum seekers councils have helped with a homelessness duty after they have been evicted from Home Office hotels has increased by 634% over two years.
Statutory homelessness figures for England published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities today show that between October and December 2023 the number of people entitled to a prevention duty after being required to leave Home Office asylum accommodation was 1,830, while 5,140 received a relief duty.
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Two areas expect to submit their final devolution proposals in time to set up shadow combined authorities later this year, while one has already done so.
The Greater Lincolnshire deal involves Lincolnshire CC, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire setting up a new mayoral combined authority, which would have access to a £720m investment fund over 30 years. A public consultation took place earlier this year and the councils expect a final deal to be agreed this summer.
Devon CC and Torbay Council are also in the final stages of sealing a level two devolution deal. The consultation process has concluded and Devon CC has voted in favour of continuing with the deal, while Torbay is due to vote today.
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The annual survey of directors of children's services has revealed 62 changes in the statutory role in councils last financial year, one of the highest turnover rates since the post was created.
According to the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) annual report, 13 councils experiences two changes in this post "largely due to due to short-term interim appointments being made prior to a permanent appointment".
However these changes in leadership took place across 49 local authorities, meaning less than a thirds of councils have experiences changes in the post holder last financial year.
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Plans to overhaul the disability benefits system and ‘deliver better value for the taxpayer’ have been laid out by the Government.
A new Green Paper sets out reforms to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which supports disabled people to live independently by helping with the extra costs they face.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the proposals were part of a plan ‘to make the benefits system fairer to the taxpayer, better targeted to individual needs and harder to exploit by those who are trying to game the system’
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Elderly and disabled people across the country are being forced to wait over six months for the installation of home adaptations due to poor administration at the local level.
In 2021/22, over two-thirds of councils took longer than the six months recommended by the Disabled Facilities Grant guidance to carry out installations that enable people to live more independent lives within their own homes.
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Nottingham city council is the worst local authority in England, while Torridge district council in Devon is the best, according to government performance statistics that expose huge variations in public sector efficiency across the country.
The data, published by a new agency, the Office for Local Government (Oflog), reveals that some councils have recycling rates that are twice as good as others and that some authorities are failing to process half of planning applications on time while others are not late on a single one.
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Teenagers in care are being placed in hotels by councils due to rising costs for placements, according to an investigation. Children aged 16 to 17 are entering care in greater numbers than any other age group. Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People’s Board, said: “With record numbers of children in care and significant pressure on budgets, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ensure every young person gets the support they need.” More than 80 per cent of children’s home are now run to make a profit, with previous LGA research finding more than 1,500 placements cost at least £10,000 a child a week.
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The Centre for Economics and Business Research has said that the UK’s more than one million potholes cost the economy £14.4 billion a year. Costs are incurred through repair costs, accidents, driver delays and higher emissions, according to the estimates.
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Rishi Sunak has not ruled out holding a general election in July. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said his “working assumption” is the election would take place in the second half of the year.
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Guildford BC has approved the sale of £50m of assets over three years under plans to stabilise the Surrey-based authority’s finances.
Under the disposal strategy, which forms part of the borough’s wider financial recovery plan, the council intends to raise £12.5m from asset sales by October 2025.
It will then seek to secure three further tranches of asset sales worth £12.5m each by April 2026, October 2026 and April 2027.
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Real wages are still below 2008 levels in nearly two-thirds of UK local authority areas, a new TUC analysis has revealed.
Over a decade and a half on from the global financial crisis, wages are set to be lower – in real terms – in 212 out of 340 UK local authorities in 2024.
Millions of workers are experiencing the ‘longest pay squeeze in more than 200 years’, according to the TUC.
London has the highest share of real wage blackspots, with real pay lower than in 2008 in nearly all (94%) of its local authorities. The South East is close behind with 78%.
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Exceptional financial support for struggling councils “feels like something to get the existing government over the line to the next election” rather than being a sustainable solution.
Dan Bates, financial resilience director at consultancy LG Improve, expressed this view during a webinar on council tax and balance sheets at local authorities.
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The funding formula for local government “needs dismantling and starting from scratch”, Parliament has been told.
Local government minister Simon Hoare was speaking during a House of Commons debate yesterday (18 April), where he said the need for wholesale change was recognised “across the two front benches”.
While any action will only take place in the next Parliament, Hoare noted that he was currently “talking to council leaderships across the country and to the wider sector about where we think the formula should land”.
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The next government must finally “grasp the nettle” and deliver lasting social care reform, the new President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services is to say. In her speech to its annual spring seminar, Melanie Williams will call for politicians to be put “on the spot” in the forthcoming general election campaign in order to focus attention on adult social care.
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Nearly half (48%) of the respondents in England said local services have gotten worse in the last five years, according to a new poll.
The Ipsos survey of 1,837 adults, carried out this month, also found that people thought local councils have a bigger impact on the quality of life in their respective areas than the central government.
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Key performance indicators for the Office for Local Government (Oflog) will "evolve as time goes on, rather than be pre-set", the local government minister has said.
Oflog was launched in July 2023 to measure the performance of local government in four key areas: adult social care, skills, reserves and waste management. However, as yet there is no set way of measuring if its introduction has been successful.
Simon Hoare (Con) local government minister told MPs yesterday that it was not "really appropriate to have KPIs at this stage." But that it was something that would be kept under review.
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Local government secretary Michael Gove has not ruled out a ‘formal structure’ for mayors to work more closely with central government.
Shadow Labour minister Dan Jarvis, who served as mayor of the Sheffield city region from 2018 to 2022, asked Gove to consider a ‘dedicated formal structure that will enable the metro mayors to work more effectively with Whitehall Government’ in the House of Commons yesterday.
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Housing experts today called for fresh restrictions on the controversial Right to Buy policy – including a ban on applying it to new builds.
A study by The Housing Forum, a not-for-profit body representing public and private sector housing bodies, proposed devolved buyers’ charters, which would allow councils to partially design local restrictions and requirements.
It also called for full retention of Right to Buy receipts for councils and a reduction in the discounts available to no more than one-fifth of the home’s value to protect the supply of social housing.
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The prospect of extra cash for councils has faded further with the latest public finance figures showing the UK borrowed more than expected last month.
According to public sector finance figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the Government borrowed £11.9bn in March, which, although £4.7bn less than March last year, was still higher than economists had predicted.
In the full year to March, borrowing was estimated at £120.7bn, £7.6bn less than the year before but £6.6bn more than forecast by the OBR last month.
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The Local Government Association’s (LGA) White Paper should make the case for councils to receive a share of income tax, sector experts have urged.
Smith Square is understood to have been lobbied to include calls for fiscal devolution as sector groups jostle for their agendas to be included in the paper.
The LGA has asked councils to submit their strongest piece of evidence that will help to demonstrate to a new or returning Government that a more empowered sector could deliver the public’s priorities more effectively as it continues to develop its White Paper – a key ambition of chair Shaun Davies.
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The new president Melanie Williams said the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services will be “more assertive” under her leadership.
Speaking at Adass’ Spring Seminar this morning, Ms Williams said “we need greater challenge of the government, our systems and status quo”.
Ms Williams, who is also the director of adult social care and health at Nottinghamshire CC, said: “Politicians make promises about reforming social care and then don’t fulfil them.”
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Just one in 10 councils are confident they can provide enough early years places to deliver the Government’s childcare expansion on time, a spending watchdog has warned.
In the 2023 spring budget, the chancellor announced that children from nine months old would be entitled to 30 funded hours of childcare a week from September 2025.
A phased roll-out meant two-year olds were offered 15 hours a week from April 2024 – an entitlement that will expand to children from nine months old this September.
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The controversial one-word Ofsted judgements for schools are here to stay despite criticism after the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry.
The grades, such as ‘outstanding’ or ‘inadequate’, had ‘significant benefits’ for parents choosing a local school for their children, according to the Government.
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Research into how unpaid carers are impacted when they are forced to repay benefit overpayments will be published ‘shortly’, a minister has pledged.
In 2018, the Work and Pensions Committee began an inquiry into reports that many carers had amassed large overpayments of Carer’s Allowance, an £81.90 weekly benefit for people who provide at least 35 hours of unpaid care a week.
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The Prime Minister’s announcement of extra defence cash could hit public sector budgets further, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Rishi Sunak pledged to put Britain on ‘a war footing’ by increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 on a visit to Poland. Under the plans, defence spending would increase by £75bn over the next six years.
However, IFS senior research economist Ben Zaranko has claimed the move would hit non-protected government spending – including local government.
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The new president of the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADASS) has called for a community, rather than a hospital, focus for the sector.
Melanie Williams told the association’s Spring Seminar in Bedfordshire that there was a ‘disproportionate’ political focus on hospital discharges despite four in five requests for social care support coming from the community.
Williams, who is also Nottinghamshire CC’s corporate director for adult social care and health, told delegates: ‘Therefore, our ADASS focus on building personalised and community support closer to home must remain.
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Nearly 10,000 staff members working in councils across England are currently on long-term sick leave, freedom of information requests have revealed.
Sent by the Liberal Democrats to all English councils, the FOI requests showed there were 9,979 council staff on long-term sick leave, up 18% from 8,441 in 2019.
The FOI requests, which received 185 responses, also found 58% of local authorities had seen a rise in staff being off on long-term sickness compared to 2019.
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The next government must finally “grasp the nettle” and deliver lasting social care reform, the new president of an adult social services organisation is to say.
Melanie Williams will call for politicians to be put “on the spot” in the forthcoming general election campaign in order to focus attention on adult social care.
Both the social care minister Helen Whately and shadow social care minister Andrew Gwynne are due to speak at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) spring seminar on Thursday.
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New figures from the RAC have shown the number of vehicle breakdowns caused by potholes have increased by 9 per cent in the past 12 months. Cllr Darren Rodwell, Transport spokesperson for the LGA, previously said: “Councils are doing all they can to tackle the £16.3 billion backlog of road repairs, including learning from and adopting innovative techniques.”
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Sales of council homes under the Right to Buy scheme have increased over the past 10 years, and are expected to reach 100,000 between 2021 and 2030, according to the Housing Federation. The LGA's previous calls for reform of the scheme are reported, including for councils to be able to set discounts locally.
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There’s a growing awareness of the crisis in local government finances. But there’s another ticking time-bomb – the subsidies that charities and the social sector are providing.
Our new research, State of the Sector 2024: Ready for a Reset, estimates that charities are propping up the public purse by £2.4bn a year by making up shortfalls in public sector contracts. With charities’ other sources of income under pressure, this puts services delivered by charity contracts at risk. Services ranging from mental health support and care for those who are unwell or unable to work to tackling poverty and reducing homelessness.
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Forest of Dean District Council has called on ministers to fully fund trade unions’ pay claim for local government workers.
Councillors at the Gloucestershire authority voted for a motion backing the 2024-25 pay claim for a 10% or £3,000 pay rise for council and school employees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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A new National Office for Care and Support has been launched in Wales, with this focusing on innovation, improvement, and transformation.
The primary focus of the National Office for Care and Support will be to support the Chief Social Care Officer for Wales, to deliver a National Care Service, and to implement the National Commissioner Framework for Care and Support in Wales.
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As many as half a million unpaid carers in the UK who look after frail, ill and disabled loved ones are failing to claim the £4,200-a-year carer’s allowance despite experiencing high levels of poverty, according to new estimates. Campaigners said unpaid carers may have not claimed the benefit partly because of strict limits dictating the amount of paid work they can undertake on top of their care duties, and the penalties they face if they breach those rules.
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There was a worse than expected performance for retail sales last month, despite predictions of a consumer-led pick up from recession for the UK economy. The Office for National Statistics reported sales volumes were flat in March, following an upwardly revised figure of 0.1 per cent for the previous month and said sales at non-food stores helped offset declines at supermarkets.
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Ministers have demanded councils improve their productivity in the same week as the Government quietly published a report revealing Whitehall makes the sector less efficient.
Local government minister Simon Hoare wrote to chief executives on Tuesday, formally asking councils to produce productivity plans.
Hoare claimed he was ‘not looking to impose excessive burdens’ or ‘issue you with a formal template or a detailed list of criteria to meet’ but suggested an astonishing 51 questions the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) would like councils to answer.
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Further coverage of Freedom of Information requests that revealed a 70 per cent rise in the total amount of council tax arrears over the last 5 years, with almost 600,000 residents referred to bailiffs have been reported. The LGA said: "Enforcement agents should only ever be used as a last resort. Before the situation reaches a stage where enforcement agents are involved, several letters should have been written, people should have been encouraged to apply for financial support, and efforts should be made to arrange new payment plans."
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Productivity plans are a "diversion tactic" from central government to "change the narrative" ahead of the general election, local government figures claim.
Local government minister Simon Hoare wrote to council chiefs on Tuesday asking them to "formally begin" compiling productivity plans, which were first proposed in the as part of this year's financial settlement.
These documents should be three to four pages in length and "set out" what councils have done to "transform" their organisation and services, Mr Hoare wrote.
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Former Wigan MBC chief Donna Hall was appointed to Nottingham City Council’s improvement board by the government in 2021. However, she became frustrated and stood down after two months.
“My experience was there was no deep transformation and building a partnership relationship with citizens, as we did in Wigan. It’s heavily governance and finance focused, often in a strategic and relational vacuum.”
She told LGC she would now not want to be a commissioner as she has not been a chief executive for more than four years, during which time a lot has changed.
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LGC looks at the characteristics of the individuals charged with turning around the most troubled councils
Almost 70% of commissioners sent into struggling councils are male and more than a quarter have not worked in local government for four years or more, exclusive LGC analysis has found.
LGC research shows there are currently 26 individuals involved across eight active statutory interventions by the Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities.
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The government will not "rate or score" council productivity plans or create "any kind of league tables", a letter to chief executives has revealed.
Local government minister Simon Hoare wrote to council chiefs on Tuesday asking them to "formally begin" compiling productivity plans, which were first proposed in the as part of this year's financial settlement.
These documents should be three to four pages in length and "set out" what councils have done to "transform" their organisation and services, Mr Hoare wrote.
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A GRIEVING mother has described the intimidating moment bailiffs turned up at her door after she fell behind on her council tax bill.
Jess King, from Yorkshire, fell behind on her priority bills after losing her newborn baby, but she isn't alone. It comes 600,000 people were referred to bailiffs for not paying their council tax on time.
The data came from a Freedom of Information request by ITV News which asked 100 of the country's biggest councils about council tax arrears.
The responses revealed that the total amount owed in council tax arrears has increased by over 70% in the past five years.
[ more...]
Fresh concerns have been raised over the remit for local government’s new ombudsman.
Fears were raised by experts that Oflog’s remit is and relationship with other oversight organisations is unclear.
Members of the levelling up committee were told that its focus on collecting data will be useful for the government but will be of limited use to the councils that have either already issued Section 114 notices or may do so within the next two years.
CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman told the committee its remit is “pretty limited… given the challenges facing local government”.
[ more...]
New safeguards have been introduced to curtail “excessive borrowing” by local authorities which puts them at heightened risk of financial failure.
[ more...]
Local authorities referred almost 600,000 people to bailiffs last year due to failure to pay council tax, according to a freedom of information request.
ITV News sent FOI requests to around 100 of the biggest councils in England.
The responses revealed that the total amount owed in council tax arrears has increased by over 70% in the past five years.
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Around £6m in funding promised to local authorities to help tackle air pollution will be withheld, a Defra spokesperson has confirmed.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is also considering a redesign of the Local Air Quality Grants scheme.
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A report by the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group, researched and funded by Health Equity North, has found that while the north of England accounts for 28 per cent of the child population, 36 per cent of children are in care. The analysis suggests that due to the higher burden, the north has faced service costs of at least £25 billion in the last four years.
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Councils face a £300 million funding gap to support their efforts to tackle homelessness, the charity Centrepoint has claimed. The research is based on the results of freedom of information requests to councils in England. Cllr Darren Rodwell, housing spokesperson for the LGA said: “Councils have consistently raised significant concerns about the impact rising cost of living, multiple asylum and resettlement programmes, and an insufficient supply of affordable housing, are having on driving increases in homelessness. Currently, councils are spending £1.74 billion on supporting households living in temporary accommodation, with this spend predicted to increase by a further 19.9 per cent in 2023/24.”
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The Local Government Association (LGA) is to introduce a ‘significant new foundation programme’ for newly-appointed chief executives after a ‘successful’ pilot.
Launching its sector support programme for 2024-25, the LGA said it would expand its range of officer and councillor development opportunities, including for statutory officers.
The LGA will also launch a ‘flagship’ national recruitment campaign to ‘attract new talent and promote the benefits of a career in local government’ amid recruitment and capacity challenges.
[ more...]
The Government has ignored Local Government Association (LGA) calls for the sugar levy to be spent by councils to tackle physical inactivity.
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Councils in England placed hundreds of vulnerable school-age children in unregulated homes last year due to the shortage of secure places, an investigation has revealed.
In 2022-23, over 700 looked after children were placed in homes that were not registered with Ofsted, the children’s social care watchdog, according to the Observer.
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A report by the Fawcett Society has claimed that the UK’s childcare system has fallen behind international comparators. The charity compared the affordability, quality and levels of public spending with childcare in Australia, Canada, Estonia, France, and Ireland.
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Campaigners have warned of a growing decline in the condition of local roads and have called for increased levels of funding for councils to tackle the issue. Analysis last year by the LGA of OECD figures found that spending on local roads had halved between 2006 and 2019. The LGA’s position on road funding has been reiterated in today’s print edition of the Telegraph.
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The UK economy has grown slightly for the second month in a row. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.1 per cent in February, the Office for National Statistics said.
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Seven more areas in England have been selected to trial the Families First for Children (FFC) scheme, a £45m child protection programme.
The scheme was launched in three areas in 2023 after reports into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson in 2020 and a child care review in 2022.
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A decline in the number of school-age children could lead to schools losing over £1bn in funding by 2030, education experts warn.
Pupil numbers in state-funded primary and secondary schools are projected to fall from over 7.5 million in 2022-23 to just over 7.1 million in 2028-29, according to a new report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI).
The decrease in the number of pupils could mean a reduction in school funding from £42.7bn in 2024-25 to £41.6bn by 2029-30, which would force schools to consider mergers, cost-cutting measures and closures to remain viable.
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One in seven eligible English highway authorities have failed to detail their plans for the Government’s £300m of redirected HS2 road resurfacing cash.
The Department for Transport said that as a condition of the funding and to make sure the money was being spent on pothole repairs, local authorities were required to publish a two-year plan detailing exactly which roads will benefit.
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Urban wealth funds could invest in local assets to avoid selling them at fire-sale prices and alleviate the financial crisis across councils.
Andy Haldane, former chief economist at the Bank of England and current chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, made the case for urban wealth funds operating in such a way in a recent contribution to the Financial Times.
An income stream of £100bn each year could be generated for local councils, he conservatively estimated, if half of all public assets were placed in commercially-managed urban wealth funds with a rental yield of 5%.
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Bristol City Council will have to issue a section 114 notice if it fails to meet the terms of a government programme that aims to wipe an escalating deficit in its special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) budget.
The council’s Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) reserve, which finances the SEND budget, is forecast to be £56.1m in deficit as at 31 March 2024, rising to £114.2m by 2027/28. The latter figure, though, assumes that all currently planned mitigations “have been successfully delivered in full up to that date”, according to a new report presented to the council’s cabinet.
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The final requirements for determining minimum revenue provision (MRP) for local authorities in England have been laid out in parliament.
Amendments to the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 have been made, and specify additional requirements that local authorities must comply with – with most of the changes coming into effect on 1 April 2025.
MRP is an amount of money set aside each year by local authorities to ensure they can repay the principle of their debt, essentially stopping authorities from taking on more debt than they can afford to repay.
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Schools in England could lose up to £1bn in funding by 2030, researchers warn, with exceptional falls in pupil numbers prompting a wave of closures as some establishments cease to be financially viable.
Mergers and closures are already under way in parts of London, where pupil numbers have been falling for some time. According to the Education Policy Institute (EPI), a thinktank, the north-east is projected to see the greatest decline in primary pupil numbers, down 13% by 2028/9.
At secondary level, Yorkshire and the Humber, as well as the north-east and London, are projected to have the largest falls in pupil numbers, whereas in other areas, including the West Midlands, the south-east and east of England, numbers are rising.
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Local authorities have published which pothole-stricken roads will benefit from the first tranche of an over £8bn package of reallocated HS2 funding.
The £150m of the £8.3bn pot was paid to councils for fixing roads last year (2023/24) and another £150m will be released this year (2024/25).
As a condition of this funding, local authorities are required to publish a two-year plan detailing which local roads will benefit.
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English Councils received nearly £2bn in income from on and off-street parking in 2022-23, but paid out nearly £1bn in running and enforcement costs.
Outturn data for the year published by the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) showed that councils in England had a total income including fines from on-street parking of £1,196m and £730m from off street parking, totalling £1,927m.
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Staff at Derbyshire CC working across various departments are being balloted for industrial action by one trade union.
Unison is calling on its members in children’s services, day centres, libraries, homecare, community services, tourism, and schools to vote on whether to strike due to planned recruitment freezes and expenditure controls.
This recruitment freeze would "inevitably lead to already stretched staff taking on more work and stress" there is a "sizeable number of job vacancies at the council", Unison say.
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History reveals four significant obstacles to putting councils on a sustainable financial footing, writes a PhD student at INLOGOV.
An enticing set of options for the much-needed reform of local government finance was presented recently in LGC by Mark Sandford in his review of international examples. A historical perspective, however, leads to a more pessimistic assessment of the prospects for change.
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We often look to others to understand ourselves better. If we want to develop, professionally or personally, it can be good to examine our peers to help take stock of what is going well, where there is room for improvement and maybe highlight things we didn’t even know we were – or weren’t – doing.
Evening out the stark social and economic inequalities between regions in England is a huge policy, funding and delivery challenge for local authorities and their civic partners, and so looking elsewhere at what has worked is a useful strategy and starting point.
CIPFA’s 2022 research with the University of Birmingham looked at four international cities — Cleveland, US (above); Fukuoka, Japan; Nantes, France; and Leipzig, Germany — and identified nine common factors that were key to their levelling-up successes. These range from political will and partnerships to long-term investment to monitoring and evaluation (see panel, below).
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Every constituency in Britain saw a rise in sickness benefit claims last year, with Conservative areas experiencing some of the biggest increases.
Affluent southern areas have seen the numbers of people claiming the main incapacity benefit jump a third or more in a year, according to constituency-level analysis by the Labour Party, with experts warning that mental health is worsening nationwide and Britain is getting sicker.
While the highest absolute number of incapacity claimants are in Labour seats, dominated by inner-city parts of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, as well as towns such as Hartlepool and Middlesbrough which have been hit by de-industrialisation, the biggest proportional increases are in commuter and rural areas, which traditionally have lower benefit numbers.
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Children from low-income families who grew up near a Sure Start centre did better than their peers at GCSEs, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Its research says those living near a centre performed up to three grades better than those further away.
Sure Start centres started in 1998 to give parents of toddlers extra support, especially in disadvantaged areas, but many have closed.
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Campaign group TaxPayers’ Alliance has published its annual ‘town hall rich list’ today as it continues to raise the issue of public sector pay.
The list shows that 3,106 council staff in the UK received total remuneration of at least £100,000 in 2022-23, the second highest figure since the list began in 2007.
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The Liberal Democrats would deliver tax reforms to ‘revive struggling high streets’, leader Ed Davey will announce today.
Under the proposals, business rates would be replaced with a new commercial landowner levy, with local authorities still able to keep 50% of tax returns from businesses.
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An independent review of Homes England has urged officials to 'build closer relationships' with councils.
The review by Tony Poulter, a non-executive director at the Department for Transport, reaffirmed Homes England’s status as the appropriate national public body of scale for place-making.
However, in his report published today, Poulter makes 34 key recommendations to ministers and Homes England designed to improve the workings of the under-fire organisation.
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Councils have increased parking charges over the last year, according to government figures. Reports suggest that councils received £1.93 billion in fees and fines in the year to April 2023, up from £1.76 billion the previous year. A spokesperson for the LGA said: “Income raised through parking charges is spent on running parking services. Any surplus is spent on essential transport projects. Motorists can avoid fines by ensuring they observe parking and traffic rules that are only there to help all drivers get around and find parking safely, smoothly and fairly.”
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Grant Thornton has been fined by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for ‘failures’ in its audit of an unnamed local authority’s pension fund.
The FRC’s inspection found two uncorrected material errors in the pension fund’s audited financial statements included in the local authority’s annual report for 2020-21.
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Council directors have praised the Children’s Homes Association (CHA) for tightening its membership criteria to crack down on firms based in tax havens.
The CHA has insisted that members must now be ultimately owned in the UK, have majority shareholders who are registered UK taxpayers and cannot receive loans originating from tax havens.
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Up to 15 new children’s homes, which aim to provide the 'right care in the right place at the right time', could be created across Lancashire.
The homes would provide a total of 40 places, including two crisis beds, for looked-after children with complex needs.
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Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council has launched a consultation on how it will cut £2.3m from its library budget.
The local authority, which issued a section 114 notice in September, said the number of community libraries could be cut from 35 to 25.
It has also proposed reduced opening hours, transferring library services to community groups, and expanding libraries at home and mobile provision.
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The outgoing leader of Nottingham City Council has said there ‘simply isn’t enough money’ in local government to ‘run the services our citizens depend on’.
Nottingham, which has had to make sweeping cuts to its services to balance its budget after issuing a section 114 notice, was among 19 councils forced to agree capitalisation directions this year.
In newly-published minutes of a council meeting, Nottingham’s Labour leader David Mellen said:
‘This callous and cruel-hearted Government has brought local government in this country to its knees. I would like to be clear on one point right at the start – this is not a Nottingham problem. This is a national problem caused by a government that has failed to fix social care, caused massive inflation and generated a cost of living crisis that has seen soaring rates of homelessness. A failure of central government, but for some reason the buck stops with us – Nottingham City Council, and the people we represent. We are the ones that must pick up the pieces of their broken Britain without the resources to do so. Years of Tory underfunding of councils has led us to this day - years of austerity, years of rising prices and inflation and years of a broken care system.’
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The outgoing leader of Nottingham City Council has said there ‘simply isn’t enough money’ in local government to ‘run the services our citizens depend on’.
Nottingham, which has had to make sweeping cuts to its services to balance its budget after issuing a section 114 notice, was among 19 councils forced to agree capitalisation directions this year.
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The Department for Transport (DfT) has shelved the further rollout of powers for English councils to enforce moving traffic violations like dangerous driving outside schools.
Ministers were due to lay regulations in Parliament last month to allow a tranche of 22 local authorities to enforce contraventions such as driving the wrong way down one-way streets and ignoring no entry signs from tomorrow.
The DfT suggested the designation order may be shelved until after the General Election.
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Teachers and support staff have warned of a crisis in funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with seven out of eight saying the resources available in schools are insufficient to meet need.
In a survey of 8,000 members carried out by the National Education Union ahead of its annual conference, one in three respondents said their school had no behaviour support team whatsoever, while two in five reported no counsellor or occupational health specialist.
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In the 50 years since the structure of local government was overhauled, the search for efficiency has won out over community representation again and again, writes the director of LSE London.
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On the 50th anniversary of the most significant local government reform for generations, one of the ministers involved tells LGC the government should have gone further.
For those with a passion for local government, this week marks a moment in history: 50 years since a landmark restructuring of local government in England took effect.
But for one of the key figures involved passing the legislation that abolished hundreds of councils and created the system that remains in place in much of the country, the reform should have gone much further. It was “a big step” but “not the whole step”.
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Terence Herbert is set to join Surrey CC as chief executive after Joanna Killian left to head up the Local Government Association.
Mr Herbert is currently chief at Wiltshire Council and is expected to join Surrey in the summer. The appointed should be ratified at a full council meeting next Tuesday.
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A think-tank has called for a portion of the proceeds from landfill tax to be devolved to councils.
Chief executive of Localis, Jonathan Werran, said there was a ‘need to allocate a portion of landfill tax revenues to fund research and development aimed at advancing technologies for waste recovery, reuse and recycling, as well as for legacy chemical cleanup, as well as a portion allocated to funding the prevention of waste crime’.
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Teachers and support staff are ‘losing faith’ in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system due to inadequate resources, a union has warned.
The National Education Union (NEU) asked its members in England and Wales what provision they had at school or local authority level to support pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or who may need to be referred for one.
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Council payouts for punctured tyres and damaged suspension are down 13% since 2020 despite reports of pothole-riddled roads increasing by almost a quarter over the same period.
New analysis by insurance website, Confused.com, has found that almost one million potholes were reported by drivers in 2023. This represents an increase of 24% since 2020.
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The Government has rejected a request for a public inquiry into Thurrock Council’s financial failure and significant levels of debt.
Thurrock Council members wrote to secretary of state Michael Gove on behalf of more than 1,500 residents who called for a public inquiry into the local authority’s financial issues.
Minister for Local Government Simon Hoare MP responded that a public inquiry would not ‘provide further understanding into the historical failings or management of the council that is not being achieved through statutory intervention’.
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Ministerial promises to ‘co-design’ the Office for Local Government (Oflog) with the sector have been broken, councils have claimed.
Then local government minister Lee Rowley said last year that ‘co-design will underpin the development and success of Oflog’.
But, in written evidence to MPs, the Local Government Association (LGA) said the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) ‘did not engage with repeated efforts by the LGA and colleagues in the wider local government sector to co-design’ with them.
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Local government should be given NHS England’s £169bn budget to deliver most health services, the Reform think-tank has suggested in a report.
The proposed radical shake-up would see NHS England phased out and an “appropriate tier” of local government in each area take on all but the most specialised functions, with a block grant lasting at least five years and freedom to spend it according to local needs.
As long as a centrally set minimum service level is reached, local government would be allowed to deliver services as it sees fit – part of a change in emphasis from reactive, acute, episodic treatment to a service that creates health in the first place.
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More than three quarters of England’s second home owners are set to be charged double council tax next year. An analysis by the Telegraph has found that at least 153 local authorities will impose the levy next April, in a move which is likely to affect up to 130,000 homes.
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The minimum wage, known as the National Living Wage, is increasing by more than £1 for the first time. The main wage rate is rising from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour and will apply to workers over 21 rather than over 23.
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Parish and town councils will spend almost £800 million in the next financial year after increasing their average council tax surcharge by 8.5 per cent, according to official figures. Data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shows parish and town councils will increase their spending from £708 million in 2023/24 to £783 million in 2024/25.
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Bus services supported by councils have been reduced by more than 90 per cent over the last decade, analysis by iNews has revealed. The loss of services means that across the 10 worst-affected areas, a combined 16 million miles of bus routes have been lost.
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People on the lowest incomes will be able to apply to have their debts wiped out for free as rules change in April. Debt Relief Orders clear existing debt on everything from council tax to energy bills and rent and cost £90 to apply for, which charities said many people in debt could not afford, but from 6 April they will be free in England and Wales.
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One in every 25 bridges on Britain’s local roads are unable to carry the heaviest vehicles, new figures show. The RAC Foundation, which carried out the analysis, expressed concerns over the impact of severe weather and a shortage of engineering skills. Cllr Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the LGA said councils want to “focus on preventative measures to make all of our local highways infrastructure more resilient.”
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Interim chair of the Office for Local Government (Oflog), Lord Morse, has announced he will be stepping down at the end of March due to ‘unexpected health reasons’.
‘I am proud of the model for Oflog that we have developed in close collaboration with the local government sector and set out recently in our draft Corporate Plan,’ he said.
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The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school transport system must be reformed or else it will ‘threaten the financial viability of councils’, council leaders warn.
The cost of SEND school transport has increased from £727m in 2019 to £1.4bn in 2024, freedom of information requests by the BBC have revealed.
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The prime minister rejected the idea that there is a crisis in council finances during a grilling by MPs at the Commons liaison committee today.
Clive Betts (Lab), the chair of the levelling up, housing and communities committee, told Rishi Sunak that while there were recent financial problems that “have been specific to some councils, there's now a more general problem. And in the next year or two, about half the authorities will be in financial distress, potentially. Isn't there a fundamental crisis in local government finance?”
Mr Sunak acknowledged that councils “face challenges”, adding that in this parliament “significantly more funding has gone into local government,” such as the £600m boost in the most recent financial settlement.
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The prime minister Rishi Sunak has defended the pace of system-wide reform for councils with high dedicated schools grant deficits.
Last week four councils joined the Department for Education's safety valve programme.
During the liaison committee hearing yesterday, the education committee chair Robin Walker (Con) asked if the prime minister can “address” the high needs budgets for councils that “that seem to be getting larger and larger over the years without actually reducing or removing those deficits” despite councils being part of the safety valve and delivering better value programmes.
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There has been an increase in councils not accepting requests for education, health and care needs assessments (EHCNA), according to campaigners. A Freedom of Information request by website Special Needs Jungle claimed that on average councils refused 26.4 per cent of requests for an EHCNA in 2023, up from 21.6 per cent in 2022.
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There have been increasing numbers of people in rural areas forced to access the private rental market due to rising house prices, according to a report by the County Councils Network. There has been a 19 per cent increase in rural renting, which has outpaced rises in London and England's other cities. The report warned that the number of households in private and social rental properties in rural areas has increased by 550,000 between 2011 and 2021. Cllr Richard Clewer, CCN's housing and planning spokesperson, said: "It is widely accepted that the housing crisis is one that is worsening, with rising unaffordability locking hundreds of thousands out of getting onto the property ladder”. Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, Cllr Linda Taylor, housing spokesperson for the LGA said: “What I would like to see is a change in planning use, so if anyone is renting out a private property and want to go into the holiday market they should have to apply for a change of use so you can start to control what is happening in your communities.”
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Local authorities in England will share up to £295m in funding to help them introduce weekly food waste collections, Recycling Minister Robbie Moore has announced.
Weekly collections of food waste will be rolled out for most households across England by 31 March 2026 as part of the Government’s Simpler Recycling plans.
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Ministers have reiterated to MPs there are ‘no plans’ to revalue council tax bands due to the cost and disproportionate impact on lower-income households and pensioners.
In its official response to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee report into councils’ financial distress, published on 26 March, the government has stood firm on its refusal to consider reforming the regressive tax soon.
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Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services in Bristol are to receive a nearly £54m bailout, the Government has confirmed.
The Department for Education has announced that Bristol City Council has been included in its Safety Valve (SV) Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) management programme.
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MPs have called for the introduction of an ‘uprating guarantee’ to uprate working-age benefits and the Local Housing Allowance rate on an annual basis.
A report from the Work and Pensions Committee also recommended that the Household Support Fund be made a permanent part of the social security system.
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West Sussex CC has named Surrey CC’s interim boss Leigh Whitehouse as its new chief executive.
Having recently stepped up from his substantive post as deputy chief executive and executive director of resources to cover Joanna Killian’s departure from Surrey for the Local Government Association, Whitehouse was expected to be among applicants to be Killian’s permanent replacement
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A ‘complex web’ of hard-to-reach Whitehall funding pots is hampering councils’ net-zero initiatives – with two-thirds of town halls not confident of hitting crucial targets.
A survey by the Local Government Association (LGA), published today, reveals the potential for local action on climate change is being ‘strangled’ by the bureaucratic system of bidding for central government funds.
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Public satisfaction with social care services has slumped to the lowest level ever recorded, according to a new survey.
The British Social Attitudes survey findings, published today by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund, found just 13% of respondents were 'very' or 'quite' satisfied with social care services.
Conversely, 57% were either ‘quite dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ – an historic high level.
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The government‘s response to the Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities Select Committee’s inquiry on financial distress in local authorities.
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The Work and Pensions Committee has called on the Government to reform the social security system with new benefit levels that take into account living costs. They said that benefit payments are “too low” to cover daily living costs and the Government must act to increase financial support. Cllr Pete Marland, Chair of the LGA’s Economy and Resources Board, said: “While it’s good that the household support fund was recently extended, councils now want to work with the government to deliver a sustainable, long-term solution to support households out of poverty and improve residents’ financial resilience and wellbeing.”
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Schools with leaking roofs and decades-old temporary classrooms are concerned they will not be able to make repairs, as most of the last places on a scheme to rebuild schools went to those with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). The School Rebuilding Programme aims to rebuild or refurbish 500 schools in a decade.
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The average cost of rent in the UK rose by 9 per cent in the 12 months to February this year - the highest annual increase since records began in 2015. There were price rises in all parts of the country, according to the Office for National Statistics.
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Across the country, average council tax bills from April 2024 will be 5.1 per cent higher than 2023 – or £106 more – for band D households. LGA Chair, Cllr Shaun Davies, said councils were starting the financial year in a precarious position and scaling back or closing a wide range of services. “This means many are again left facing the difficult choice about raising bills to bring in desperately needed funding. It is unsustainable to expect them to keep doing more for less in the face of unprecedented cost and demand pressures. Keeping councils on a financial drip feed has led to the steady weakening of local services. Local government needs greater funding certainty through multi-year settlements to prevent this ongoing decline.”
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Nearly all local authorities in England are raising council taxes by the maximum amount permitted, according to new data from the Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities. While the increases were not unexpected, think-tanks and local government groups have said the data highlights stark regional disparities, with poorer areas in the north in particular forced to raise the levy more than richer areas. People across the board were paying more and more for increasingly threadbare services, they added.
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The energy price crisis caused the sharpest increase in UK absolute poverty in 30 years, new figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show. Steep price rises, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, meant hundreds of thousands more people fell into absolute poverty. The figure jumped to 12 million in 2022-2023, a rise of 600,000. This means the rate of absolute poverty in the UK now stands at 18 per cent - a rise of 0.78 percentage points.
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Accommodation for lone asylum seeker children who arrive on the Kent coast in small boats could run out before the end of this month, a council has warned, placing them at risk. Kent County Council has legal duties under the Children Act to take these children into care on arrival in the UK. Under the national transfer scheme, many of the children are subsequently moved to different local authorities around the country after arrival. However, due to high numbers of children arriving on their own on small boats and delays in moving them to other areas, Kent Council say it is struggling to cope and that its spaces for these children could run out before the end of March.
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The co-operation between local government and the NHS hoped for with the advent of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) is faltering, experts have said.
Windsor and Maidenhead LBC chief executive Stephen Evans told The MJ’s Future Forum cross-sector co-operation seen during the pandemic had dissipated since.
‘In the last year or so, we’ve retreated back into siloes – that’s a massive missed opportunity,’ he said.
‘I feel like that collaboration has gone backwards.’
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Labour could be presented with an opportunity to reform council tax if election polls are borne out, The MJ’s Future Forum has heard.
Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, was asked if the chance for an overhaul of the system had passed.
He said there could be hope for reform of the ‘out of date and regressive’ tax should Labour win a comfortable majority after the General Election, but harboured doubts over whether the political courage was there.
‘That’s an opportunity to do radical stuff. I don’t know how willing they will be to do something radical.’
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This week marks the first anniversary of the signing of the West Midlands trailblazer devolution deal.
A good time then to take a step back and reflect on what we have learned about being at the vanguard of English devolution.
There will of course be a range of perspectives, but here are five reflections from the ‘frontline’ on negotiation and implementation.
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Forty-four local authorities are set to receive a share of £185m to help accelerate the rollout of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, the Department for Transport has announced.
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The boss of the Bank of England has said it is "not yet" the time to cut interest rates leaving them unchanged for a fifth time in a row at 5.25%.
The widely-expected decision means the cost of borrowing remains at its highest level for 16 years.
Eight of the nine Bank rate setters voted to leave rates unchanged, with only one voting in favour of a cut.
The Bank has kept interest rates at a high level in a bid to slow the pace consumer prices have been rising at.
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A new cross-party report from MPs has warned that the Department of Health and Social Care is failing to provide the leadership required to deliver a social care sector sufficient to meet the country’s future needs. Initiatives to support the workforce have so far only been short-term, while a long-term and comprehensive workforce plan is lacking, the Public Accounts Committee said. The LGA said it strongly supports the call for long-term financial support and certainty, as it described the sector being in “a precarious position, with overstretched budgets, significant unmet and under-met need, and remaining instability within the provider market”.
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The rate of pothole repairs on local roads in England and Wales has reached an eight-year high, according to a new report. The Asphalt Industry Alliance said highways are heading towards “breaking point” after its ALARM survey found that councils expect to fix two million potholes in the current financial year. Meanwhile, the amount needed to fix the backlog of local road repairs has reached a record £16.3 billion, up 16 per cent from £14 billion a year ago. LGA transport spokesperson Cllr Darren Rodwell said: “This report reveals in stark terms the huge challenge facing councils in maintaining the local roads network, which nearly everyone relies on. The backlog of repairs now stands at almost double the extra amount that government has promised over the next 11 years.”
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Ministers are considering removing the power for councils to make profits when fining motorists for minor traffic offences, such as stopping in yellow box junctions or driving in bus lanes. The Department for Transport has put out a call for evidence on “restricting the generation of surplus funds from traffic contraventions.”
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The pace of general price rises has slowed, falling to 3.4 per cent in February, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics. This is down from 4 per cent in January and December, and the lowest rate for nearly two and a half years, but the rate of inflation is still above the Bank of England's 2 per cent target.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has hinted a general election could be held in October. He told a Lords Committee the Government's next spending review had to be completed before next April and “if the general election is in October that will mean it's very, very tight”.
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A survey of more than 200 LAs in England and Wales prompted warnings that entrenched regional disparities would only be exacerbated, resulting in “levelling down”. Poorer areas of the country will pay more council tax than wealthier ones, warned CIPFA which carried out the survey.
It found that band D properties, which are used as the baseline for setting other band rates, will rise by 5.2% across England and Wales from April — 0.3% more than this year. The contrast was most stark between the northeast and London. Households in the former will pay £420 more for an average band D property in council tax next year than those in Greater London.
“The continuous council tax gap between London and the rest of the country further reflects the profound regional inequalities that exist,” said Iain Murray, Cipfa’s director of public financial management.
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Roads in England and Wales are at "breaking point" due to potholes, with repairs at an eight-year high, according to a new report.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said councils were expected to fix two million potholes in the current financial year. That is up 43% on the previous year and the highest annual total since 2015-16. Ministers highlighted their pledge to provide £8.3bn of extra funding over 11 years for road improvements in England.
The AIA's annual report found that 47% of local road miles were rated as being in a good condition, with 36% adequate and 17% poor. The survey also found that average highway maintenance budgets increased by 2.3% in the 2023-24 financial year compared with the previous 12 months. But the impact of rising costs due to inflation meant local authorities "effectively experienced a real-terms cut".
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Now analysis of council budgets by Pixel Financial Management for the CCN finds that social care and children’s services account for 65% of LA spending, up from 57% in 2014. This ranges from 77% in Devon to 39% in Westminster. But only three councils, all in London, spend under half their budget on these two services.
Roger Gough, CCN spokesman for children’s services, said that councils were increasingly asking “what is left after spend for care services is factored in? These services are some of the most important we provide — they change peoples’ lives and they protect the most vulnerable in our society — but the fact remains they are not used by the majority of the population.”
He said: “With more than two thirds of the average county LA's budget now spent on just children’s services and adult social care, rising to three quarters in some areas, there is simply less and less each year for us to spend on highly valued services such as libraries, road repairs and street lighting.”
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Some coastal councils have warned of growing pressures on housing services due to a steep decline in landlords in the long term private rented sector. Hastings Borough Council has seen over 1,000 properties become Air BnB’s, with this pushing up rents in the long term rental market and forcing more households into temporary accommodation. Analysis by the LGA shows that the number of households living in temporary accommodation is the highest since records began in 1998, costing councils at least £1.74 billion in 2022/23
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The amount councils spent on placements at children’s homes has risen by 72% in five years, LGC analysis has found, but sector leaders claim the quality and quantity is not reflected in the price.
According to the Department for Education’s latest data, local authorities spent £2.5bn on residential placements last financial year, £1.1bn more than 2018-19. More than two-fifths of that increase occurred in the last year.
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Rishi Sunak is promising to create up to 20,000 more apprenticeships with a series of reforms including fully funding training for young people and cutting red tape for small businesses.
The government will pay the full cost of apprenticeships for people aged 21 or under at small firms from 1 April.
To enable this, it is pledging £60m of new investment for next year.
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From bin collections and street lighting to child protection and elderly care, councils provide services we all use, but in England more and more are in danger of going bust. BBC Panorama has followed the struggles of one such authority and the people who rely on it.
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Rishi Sunak has wasted tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money by chickening out of a May election.
The PM still refuses to say when he will go to the polls - but has ruled out holding a general election on May 2, the same day as local elections, as Labour did for every election when they were last in power. Doing so would save the country around £33.2m, according to the Mirror’s analysis of previous election costs.
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Schools are finding beds, providing showers for pupils and washing uniforms as child poverty spirals out of control, headteachers from across England have told the Observer.
School leaders said that as well as hunger they were now trying to mitigate exhaustion, with increasing numbers of children living in homes without enough beds or unable to sleep because they were cold. They warned that “desperate” poverty was driving problems with behaviour, persistent absence and mental health.
The head of a primary school in a deprived area in north-west England, speaking anonymously to avoid identifying vulnerable children, said: “We have a child who we put in the shower a couple of times a week.” He described the family’s bathroom as “disgusting” and said they couldn’t afford to buy cleaning products.
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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have been challenged to sign up to cross-party talks finally resolving the impasse over social care, as part of a Liberal Democrat plea to “grasp the nettle” after years of failure.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said that his party would include in its forthcoming manifesto a promise to attend cross-party talks on social care after the election. He called on both the Tories and Labour to do the same in a bid to agree a financial package that helps the NHS and deals with the high costs some face.
“We’ve got lots of ideas to bring to the table,” Davey told the Observer. “But we’re only going to ultimately solve this if we have a cross-party consensus. It’s just been knocked out for far too long. We need to do it right this time. We cannot wait.
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The Prime Minister has ruled out holding a general election on the same day as local elections on 2 May. The Prime Minister told broadcasters it would be in the “second half” of the year.
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There are an estimated one million potholes on Britain’s roads and last year the AA received 632,000 callouts to vehicles damaged by road defects, a 16 per cent increase. Research by Halfords found that a quarter of motorists say their vehicle has been damaged by a pothole in the previous 12 months, causing an estimated £7.5 billion in damage. The LGA said central government spending on local road maintenance fell from £4 billion in 2006 to £2 billion in 2019.
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Fees for councils should be slashed if auditors are forced to give qualified opinions due to failing to meet the backstop deadline later this year, English councils have said.
Public Sector Audit Appointments has strong powers to impose variations to reduce fees for audit work that has not been carried out but said last week it was ‘not currently able to quantify fees’.
In a consultation response, the Local Government Association (LGA) called for ‘clear proposals’ to be brought forward.
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Ministers will today come under fresh pressure at a High Court hearing to enforce a mandated National Transfer Scheme (NTS) for asylum-seeking children.
The Home Office and Kent CC have been told to reveal improvements to the scheme after a High Court judge gave them until the end of last month.
Sources familiar with the High Court case said there was ‘little chance’ of a lasting solution being agreed this week.
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Local government employers will not make a pay offer until after the upcoming local elections in May.
They are consulting on trade unions’ 10% pay claim - which would increase the national pay bill by more than £1.94bn - throughout this month but are not expected to meet to discuss the results until April.
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South Cambridgeshire DC’s decision to continue with its four-day week is ‘disappointing and arrogant,’ local government minister Simon Hoare has said.
Hoare suggested the Government could legislate to stop councils adopting the practice after the Government said ‘financial levers’ would be used from 2025-26 to ‘disincentive’ councils from following South Cambridgeshire.
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The struggling adult social care system is set to benefit from a £20m boost, the Government announced today.
The Accelerating Reform Fund will expand community-based care models such as Shared Lives, a service that matches people aged 16 and above with approved carers.
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Council funding should have been reformed by now and structures need to be ‘rationalised’ the local government minister told the District Councils’ Network (DCN) conference.
Simon Hoare told delegates: ‘At some point, we are going to have to look at what the birds eye view of local government looks like from above.’
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The Government’s levelling up agenda has been characterised by ‘astonishing delays’ and blind optimism, according to Parliament’s spending watchdog.
The Public Accounts Committee has found that councils have only spent £1.24bn of the £10.47bn available to them to reduce inequality.
The PAC also discovered that by December 2023 only £3.7bn had been given to local authorities out of the total allocation by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
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Overhauling the charges for landfill waste could cut crime and costs for councils, according to a report by the Localis think-tank.
It argued that the current charging regime’s gap between standard levels of landfill tax at £102.10 per tonne for ‘active’ and lower levels at £3.25 per tonne for ‘inactive’ material, has led to an escalation of waste crime, in the form of illegal dumping and fly-tipping.
The report, ‘Cleaning up our act - reforming landfill tax for place resilience and best local outcomes’, claimed there are too many incentives for commercial waste operators to either mis-classify loads or simply dump material in rural areas.
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There was a rise in new outlets opened by UK chains last year, dominated by coffee drive-throughs, bubble tea shops and fast food restaurants, mostly located outside city centres.
But they were not enough to outweigh the places where chains shut up shop, new figures show.
High profile failures at Wilko, Lloyds pharmacy and Paperchase meant in total there were more closures than openings.
The result was a net decrease of 5,000 in stores across the UK.
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The period after most “fiscal events” ushers in a wave of disappointment. Last week’s budget is no exception.
Conservative MPs have realised that it will not transform the economy and their political prospects. Economists recognise that unreasonable assumptions about future policy flatter the public finances. And then there’s been the host of complaints from lobby groups, MPs, think tanks and trade bodies about all the wonderful policies the chancellor failed to deliver.
After the 2021 budget, I observed a growing trend of PR agencies and campaigners branding each overlooked budget policy as a “missed opportunity”. Since then, I’ve been collating these reactions. The sheer number of “missed opportunities” and the range of issues covered sheds light on the farce that budget days have become and the inflated hopes pinned on them as cure-alls for every social problem.
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Senior Conservative MPs are said to have warned the Prime Minister against a May general election, amid reports that some No 10 advisors are pushing to hold the poll alongside local elections on May 2. Downing Street insiders, however, insist the chances of a May poll remain “vanishingly small”.
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The UK economy picked up in January, boosted by stronger sales in shops and online and more construction activity. The Office for National Statistics said the services sector led the bounce back.
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Private care homes in England are being shut down at a rate that is 22 times higher than state-owned facilities, a study has found. The Care Quality Commission has closed 816 care homes between 2011-2023, of which 804 were for-profit facilities, according to an analysis of the CQC data by a team at Oxford, Michigan and Roskilde universities.
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Demand for adult social care services has reached an unprecedented high.
The King’s Fund’s annual social care report published today found adult care requests hit a record high of two million while costs for councils have outstripped inflation, with average weekly fees rising from £670 in 2015-16 to £840 in 2022-23.
It found the sector’s vacancy rate of 152,000 was its second-highest-ever level - despite the arrival of 70,000 overseas workers.
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The Office for Local Government (Oflog) should consolidate the financial results and position of local authorities on a monthly basis, accountants have suggested.
A submission to MPs by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) said Oflog was ‘handicapped by the lack of a monthly financial consolidation and the absence of an ability to mine monthly financial reports’.
It added introducing the change would bring local government in line with ‘basic practice in the private sector’.
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The average council tax rise for Welsh local authorities will be just over 8% next year.
Unlike counterparts in England, Wales’s 22 councils do not face a cap on increases and rises from April are set to range from 4.9% in Rhondda Cynon Taff to 12.5% in Pembrokeshire.
Pembrokeshire stepped back from imposing a proposed hike of 16.3%.
Deputy leader Paul Miller said: ‘We have listened to concerns from colleagues across the chamber regard the budget and the representations they have put forward on behalf of constituents.
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Council tax sits at the heart of the debate about the funding of local public services and the balance between the citizen, local democracy and central Government.
Since its introduction in 1993, it has remained unreformed, and while the Lyons inquiry findings may be almost 20 years old, they remain as relevant as ever.
Council tax holds a dual purpose – first as a local tax, and second, as a way to fund local government. But concerns persist about its perceived fairness – in terms of both the way it distributes the tax burden and the weight of spending pressures it has to support.
Both challenges have been exacerbated by the depth and duration of austerity and subsequent developments in the housing market. Prior to any reform of council tax, we need to be very clear about purpose.
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Local government has almost become immune to the news of financial failures as more and more councils struggle with budgets and warn of impending section 114 notices, and last week’s Budget offered no respite.
Even so, the startling news a fortnight ago that 19 authorities have been given capitalisation directions totalling £2.5bn was a stark reminder of how difficult it has become to balance the books.
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Social care services for adults ‘continue to stagnate’ due to a lack of government reform, the King’s Fund has concluded.
Its annual review of the sector confirmed another year of huge pressure, high staff vacancies and a lack of funding needed to improve provision.
The health think-tank confirmed the warnings from local authority leaders that the crippling costs of provision are increasing at a rate faster than budget provision.
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Social care is under ‘intense pressure’ and must be reformed after a record 2million adults asked for support last year, a report warns.
Local authorities have seen a surge in applications for publicly-funded care over the past decade but the number receiving it has actually fallen.
The Social Care 360 report, published by the King’s Fund think-tank, reveals thousands of people are being left to struggle without the support they need.
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Despite a £600 million package of support granted to local government before the Spring Budget by the Government, the LGA has warned that it is not enough to plug the funding gap that councils are facing over the next two years and making council tax rises ‘vital’. Cllr Peter Marland, Chair of LGA Resources Board, said: “Councils have led the way at finding ways to save money and reduce costs and this work will continue, but they will still need to raise Council Tax this year and many will need to make further savings to local services in order to plug remaining funding gaps.” This comes ahead of council tax rises in the new financial year, set to begin in 20 days, with 3 in 4 councils preparing to increase council tax by at least 4.99 per cent.
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An independent group of experts is preparing to pile pressure on ministers to back fiscal devolution, The MJ understands.
A number of key members of the Levelling Up Advisory Council’s London steering group, which last week met for the second time, are believed to be supportive of fiscal devolution.
One source close to the group said they would be lobbying for a ‘rewiring’ of local government finance, which was too grant-based, to provide a ‘much stronger incentive for growth’.
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A report has called for councils to get more resources to tackle the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) backlog.
The report by the charity Age UK found the number of cases awaiting authorisation had remained at more than 100,000 since 2015-16 and was ‘so big it will probably never be eradicated’.
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Speaking during an interview on Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Labour will not bail out bankrupt councils and she is "not going to be able to fix all the problems straightaway.” She added that her focus was “on reforming the planning system to get Britain building again.”
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The population of young children is expected to fall by more than half a million by 2030, new analysis suggests. This is the equivalent of 17,000 primary school classes - or 1,800 primary schools. New data suggests the issue is also transferring to secondary schools with 4,000 fewer children applying for places this year.
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The amount spent by local authorities on promoting equality and diversity almost doubled in a three-year period, campaigners have revealed.
Research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance has found that spending on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) roles rose from just over £12m in 2020/21 to almost £23m in 2022/23.
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Councils will face only a limited number of exemptions from new powers allowing them to levy higher taxes on empty homes, ministers have confirmed.
In what will be viewed as a positive step for the hard-up local authority sector, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) today revealed there will be few exceptions to the planned crackdown on long-term empty homes.
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Political editor Beth Rigby writes about the fallout from this week's Budget, and the impact on councils and local services. In a discussion on new Sky podcast Electoral Dysfunction, the recent LGA survey showing 1 in 5 council chief executives fear having to issue a section 114 in the next two years was referenced alongside the LGA warning that "severe pressures" remain on council budgets despite additional government funding for 2024/25.
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The Treasury has confirmed councils will no longer keep 100% of Right to Buy (RTB) receipts after the current financial year despite lobbying by the sector.
To help boost social housebuilding, the Treasury had announced a temporary two-year measure to allow councils to retain receipts in full until the end of 2023-24 - a policy thought to have raised up to £400m across local government.
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The local government minister Simon Hoare has "commended" the progress at four local authorities that have either been placed into statutory intervention or under independent review.
Sandwell MBC, Liverpool City Council, Thurrock Council and the Tees Valley CA were the subject of a written ministerial update this lunchtime.
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Warwickshire County Council has been given more powers over its funding in a devolution deal announced in the Budget. It was one of three county councils to be given more control over their funding announced by Jeremy Hunt yesterday. The Chancellor also announced £100 million of levelling up funding for areas to “support cultural projects in these communities”. The LGA said it was disappointed the Government had not announced “measures to adequately fund the local services people rely on every day”. LGA Chair Cllr Shaun Davies said: “It is unsustainable to expect them to keep doing more for less in the face of unprecedented cost and demand pressures.”
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Local people have been speaking of their experience living in areas which have issued a section 114 notice. Some of these councils have reportedly been struggling to provide some basic services, such as bin collections and street cleaning. A recent LGA survey of council chief executives found 85 per cent of local authorities continue to plan reductions in spending on key services, despite the Government making an extra £600 million available for 2024/25.
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Tax cuts announced in the Budget will not make up for the impact of tax increases and rising prices, a leading think tank has said. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said households would be worse off at the election, expected this year, than they were at the start of this parliament despite the Chancellor announcing a cut to National Insurance worth £10 billion.
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The chancellor has "kicked the real decisions" around local government finance "into the long grass" after yesterday's Budget failed to provide long-term solutions, say finance experts.
Sector leaders shared their frustration more about what was not included in the Budget that are impacting local government finance. The omission of proposals on net zero, adult social care and homelessness.
Chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (Cipfa) Rob Whiteman accused the chancellor of using the Budget as "a political announcement rather than an economic budget event, doing little to help move the needle in boosting public sector productivity".
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The Government will use the Budget to urge councils to “do more for less” and reduce their spending on consultants and diversity schemes, it has been reported. Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the LGA, said this is a “distraction” in the debate around council funding. He added that councils have led the way in finding efficiencies but that many councils use consultants in order to bid for an increasing number of pots of government funding allocated through competitive bidding processes.
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The chancellor will seek to appease a raft of powerful critics in the last Budget before the general election.
Jeremy Hunt is expected to set out plans aimed at reducing tax that will appease backbenchers demanding cuts in personal taxation while meeting demands from the International Monetary Fund for the UK to focus on long-term stability.
It follows a weekend of negotiations between the chancellor and the prime minister – with the PM making clear he thinks there is room to put more cash in the public’s pockets.
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The government should avoid “prioritising politically driven tax cuts while decimating services” during Wednesday’s Budget, public sector unions have said.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled a Budget with little respite for local government but demands for increased public sector productivity.
As expected, he announced a further 2p cut to employee National Insurance to ‘make employment pay’, and pledged to continue to cut the tax when it was affordable.
Patrick Melia, Solace spokesperson for local government finance, said: ‘The Government has, once again, failed to properly address the extreme financial pressures facing local government.
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Funding for preventative services has been announced as part of the Budget in an attempt to relieve local government’s demand pressures.
In his speech, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced £105m would go towards creating 15 new special free schools, with locations to be confirmed by May.
Another £45m of match funding will also be provided to local authorities to provide 200 open children’s home placements, alongside £120m for maintenance of the secure children’s home estate.
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The North East has secured a trailblazer devolution deal that could provide a package of new funding potentially worth more than £100m, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced in his Budget.
Hunt’s announcement comes ahead of the election in May of a mayor for the expanded North East region.
It comes after trailblazer deals with the West Midlands and Greater Manchester committed the Government to confirming a single financial settlement for the two regions in the next Spending Review.
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A scheme aimed at supporting the most vulnerable households will be extended for another six months, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced in the Budget.
The Household Support Fund, which has provided £2.5bn in Government funding for local welfare support over the past two-and-a-half years, was due to end at the end of this month.
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The Treasury's productivity drive ignores "real issues we are facing and instead makes misleading statements about councils’ spending," a senior council chief said following the Budget.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt today confirmed a "public sector productivity programme" that also includes funding for the NHS and the criminal justice sector, as well as local government.
Mr Hunt said: "Good public services need a strong economy. But a strong economy also needs good public services."
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Three counties are to get devolution deals, the North East has got a trailblazer deal and 20 more towns have joined the government's towns programme under plans announced by the chancellor this afternoon.
During the Budget speech chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that Buckinghamshire Council, Warwickshire CC and Surrey CC would get level two devolution deals.
These areas had been in-line for level two, non-mayoral devolution deals for county areas that do not have a nearby unitary to combine with, which were announced at the Autumn Statement.
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The chancellor Jeremy Hunt has confirmed an additional £165m for local authorities towards the creation of 200 more children's social care placements to "combat profiteering" and strengthen "preventative action to reduce demand on public services".
Mr Hunt announced in the Budget today that the Treasury will match funding of up to £45m to build children's homes placements and an additional £120m to fund the maintenance of two secure homes in Devon and Hampshire.
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The chancellor has announced new reporting requirements designed to increase the amount council pension funds invest in the UK.
The move, announced in today’s Budget, ramps up pressure following previous action over past two years. In 2022, it set a target for the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales to invest 5% of its assets in levelling up, and last year it added an aim for it to invest a further 10% in private equity.
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Chair of the LGA, Cllr Shaun Davies, spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning about the financial challenges facing councils, as many are having to approve cuts to services to set balanced 2024/25 budgets. Ahead of this week’s Budget, Cllr Davies said: “We’ve been a lot doing more with a lot less and that is not sustainable going forward. The demand for services is at a record high, the cost of providing those services is at a record high. This is a systematic issue that the Government needs to address.”
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Health spending in England is due to suffer a 1.2 per cent cut – worth £2 billion – in the new financial year starting next month, according to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The health budget, almost all of which the NHS gets, is to go from £168.2 billion in 2023/24 to £166.2 billion in 2024-25, after adjustment for inflation, in 2022/23 prices.
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Proposals to reset the local audit system and clear the backlog of accounts could drive up the lending rates offered to the sector, councils have warned.
With almost all local authorities in England two years behind with their audited accounts, auditors are expected to issue a raft of qualified and disclaimed opinions later this year.
It comes after the Government proposed implementing a ‘backstop’ date of 30 September for the publication of audited accounts for all outstanding years up to 2022-23.
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It is ‘unrealistic’ to think the Office for Local Government (Oflog) will not pile fresh resource pressures on councils, finance experts have warned.
In written evidence to MPs, the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) said there would be a cost to the sector that ‘should be kept to a minimum’.
CIPFA’s evidence urged Oflog to maximise its use of existing data - including local authority accounts and its financial resilience index - to avoid creating onerous data collection costs.
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A delay allocating government funding to safeguard the future of England’s leisure centres and swimming pools has left local authorities and pool operators confronting "difficult decisions" about the future of their facilities.
Only a third of the funds announced in last year’s Budget to keep leisure centres "afloat" has been distributed. The first tranche was allocated in November with nearly 200 leisure centres receiving a share of £20m in response to increased operating costs.
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The higher borrowing rate for authorities that have been granted in principle exceptional financial support has been compared to a "payday loan" and branded a "bit of a telling off" by affected council leaders.
All of the 19 local authorities that were granted exceptional financial support in principle for next financial year will face a 1% "premium" on any borrowing they undertake to fund capitalisation directions. Under the terms of EFS they must borrow from the Public Works Loan Board where the basic interest rate is currently just under 5.7%.
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The impact of Birmingham’s cuts on the arts and cultural sector is worrying – and not unique, writes the director of LSE London.
Spending cuts being made by Birmingham City Council include the end of support, by 2026, for the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Rep and other important arts organisations. The Hippodrome, another local icon, is in a better position, because West Midlands CA mayor Andy Street (Con) has recently provided resources for it to expand.
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The government’s short-term plan to address the funding crisis will only make places poorer, writes LGC editor Sarah Calkin.
It is hard to overstate the seriousness of the announcement on 29 February that 19 councils are set to receive exceptional financial support to balance the books next year. Many of them are also set to receive support to allow them to close their accounts for previous years, with the broken audit system meaning issues as far back as 2019-20 are only now being resolved.
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More than 160 councils have signed an LGA letter warning that thousands of vulnerable families are facing a cliff edge of support ahead of the end of the Household Support Fund. The fund will end in a few weeks, unless an extension is announced in the Budget this week. Cllr Shaun Davies, LGA Chair, said closing the fund risks more households falling into financial crisis, destitution, and homelessness. "That increases pressure on already overstretched public services such as the NHS, social care and temporary accommodation," he added.
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Figures have shown that 254 of the 314 councils in England charge to collect green waste. The LGA said: “It should be for individual councils with their residents to decide how to carry out waste collections locally and whether the costs of providing green waste collection should be met by all taxpayers or just those that use the additional service.”
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Improving public services ranks significantly higher in the list of voter priorities than the level of tax on earnings, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It is reported that Jeremy Hunt is drafting plans for up to £9 billion worth of tax rises and spending reductions in next week’s Budget in an effort to pay for a potential 2p cut in National Insurance. In media interviews yesterday, the Chancellor appeared to rule out public service investment, instead arguing that efficiency gains can be found to improve the quality of services while freeing up cash for lower taxes.
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The Budget will contain an £800 million package of technology reforms aimed at freeing up NHS and police time, the Treasury has announced, as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said there was "too much waste in the system". Other key measures include £165 million to cut last year's local authority overspend of £670 million on children's social care places across England, by making 200 additional child social care places available, reducing the reliance on costly emergency places for children.
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Care companies are insisting on unnecessary and expensive support packages for vulnerable children to boost their profits, a council leader has claimed. Cllr Barry Lewis, the Conservative leader of Derbyshire County Council, said that former family-run businesses acquired by private equity groups were trying to get “as much cash as possible” out of local authorities.
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The Chancellor is to launch a £300 million tax raid on second-home owners who make money from holiday lets. He will reportedly abolish a series of tax perks for landlords who rent out their properties to short-term holidaymakers rather than long-term tenants, arguing it will help tackle the housing shortage in coastal areas and holiday hotspots.
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Leading economists have warned that Jeremy Hunt will “cost the country dear” if he gambles on pre-election cuts to tax and spending in this week’s Budget. Former Treasury advisers Dimitri Zenghelis and Anna Valero, backed by other economists, said the Chancellor should focus on the long-term national interest with measures to spur investment and growth.
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Major retailers including Danone have labelled the delay to the Government’s flagship recycling scheme as “disappointing”, as a three year delay is anticipated. The Government’s plan to give consumers cash to return recyclable bottles and cans is reported to have been halted by ministers until 2028, meaning the policy will have been under development for a decade.
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Fewer than a fifth of projects backed by the Government's £3.6bn Towns Fund were on track to be completed by the end of February, freedom of information (FOI) requests have revealed.
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Local government associations across the UK have taken the ‘unprecedented’ step of penning a joint letter to the chancellor with a plea for additional funding.
Ahead of this week’s Spring Budget, the associations have urged Jeremy Hunt to provide councils with extra cash to prevent cuts to essential services cut, manage an emerging housing crisis and stave off job cuts.
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Changing workstyles are affecting organisational culture, staff wellbeing and value for money, says Martin Forbes, senior strategy director at Local Partnerships. Sponsored comment from Local Partnerships.
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The Treasury has announced an additional £165m to make an additional 200 children’s social care placements available as part of a productivity drive in the public sector.
With the chancellor Jeremy Hunt due to deliver the Budget on Wednesday the Treasury announced a raft of plans that it says will deliver £1.8bn in savings by 2029.
The Treasury pointed to a £670m overspend on children’s social care places and said it aims to reduce “local government reliance on costly emergency places for children”.
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Three councils have told LGC they plan to use exceptional financial support for next financial year to plug the gap in funding for children’s services.
Last week, the government announced in principle support for 19 councils for 2024-25 which in principle is worth around £1.5bn to enable them to use capital receipts from asset sales or borrowing to fund day-to-day costs up to that amount. Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Medway Council and West Northamptonshire Council have said they plan to invest in children's services.
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Somerset Council is “rummaging through the attic” for assets to sell because “the family silver has already been sold”, after the government agreed in principle to its request for exceptional financial support, its leader has told LGC.
Less than a year after it came into existence the council declared a financial emergency due to a £100m gap and applied for capitalisation direction and permission to increase its council tax by 9.99%, above the referendum limit. The council tax request has been denied.
Bill Revans (Lib dem) told LGC: “The family silver has already been sold and we’re now rummaging through the attic looking for any old thing we can flog.”
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The Chancellor and Prime Minister have been warned by the Office for Budget Responsibility that their draft proposals for next week’s Budget were £2 billion more expensive than allowed by the Government’s “headroom” – the amount of spare cash against a promise to get debt falling in five years. They have reportedly since been working to repackage the Budget, amid intense pressure for tax cuts which can drive economic growth.
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Nearly two million people will be hit with higher tax bills in the next year if Jeremy Hunt does not take measures to ease the burden on workers in next week’s Budget, Conservative MPs and economists have warned. Senior Conservatives are among those putting pressure on the Chancellor to ease the burden on workers who face a “substantial” hit to wages as a result of fiscal drag – the stealth tax caused by frozen thresholds which do not keep up with inflation.
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Nineteen councils have been given exceptional financial support by the Government to help them manage increasingly levels budgetary pressure. The Government has given these councils capitalisation directions, giving them permission to use capital funds, often generated by selling assets, to top up spending on services. The LGA said the additional flexibility given to councils should not be a "substitute for a long-term plan to sufficiently fund local services".
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More than two thirds (67 per cent) of councils warn that neighbourhood services, including waste collection, road repairs, libraries and leisure centres, are likely to see severe cutbacks due to funding shortages, an LGA survey of council chief executives has found. 85 per cent of councils report that, despite a £600 million funding increase from Government, they will still have to make cost savings to balance their 2024-25 budgets. Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the LGA said: “Acute funding pressures remain and are forcing many councils to make stark choices about what popular services to cut. Without further funding, cost and demand pressures will continue to stretch council budgets to the limit and lead to more of the cherished services our communities rely on every day from having to be drastically scaled back or lost altogether as councils are increasingly forced to do more with less.”
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The Taxpayers Alliance and MPs are calling for all council officer salaries of more than £100,000 to be voted on and approved by councillors. Conservative MP Paul Birstow is introducing a Private Members Bill to make this law.
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The three unions representing local government staff have submitted a pay claim asking for "£3,000 or 10% whichever is higher" to the National Employers.
Unison, GMB and Unite who represent 1.4 million council and school staff in England, Wales and Northern say that a wage rise above inflation is the "only way" to maintain the staff levels necessary to deliver public services.
The unions added that council staff have seen 25% wiped from the value of their pay since 2010. The joint claim would apply from the start of April.
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Wiltshire Council is in a strong financial position because of an approach to running the authority that combines preventative investment with taking a continual long-term view – and there could be lessons for others in local government to learn. Jason Holland spoke to council leader Richard Clewer.
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Two thirds of councils will see cutbacks to local services this year as a consequence of the growing financial pressures facing authorities.
That figure was revealed in a survey conducted by the Local Government Association (LGA), which also showed that 7 in 10 councils are using reserves to set a balanced budget in 2024/25.
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More than half of English councils are likely to issue a section 114 notice within the next five years, according to a new report from the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU).
LGIU’s ‘The State of Local Government Finance in England 2024’ report, which anonymously surveyed council leaders, chief executives, chief finance officers and cabinet members for finance, has revealed the worrying statistic.
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The exceptional financial support that was announced yesterday "fails to address the underfunding" of local government, according to the Nottingham City Council leader.
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More than half of councils in the north of England are at risk of ‘financial failure’ within the next five years, analysis has found.
Financial adviser Grant Thornton found 40% of councils face their reserves falling below 5% of their net revenue expenditure – described by the firm as ‘financial failure’ – within the next five years, rising to 55% of councils in the North.
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The Local Government Association (LGA) has launched its ‘strengthened’ corporate peer challenge (CPC) to help neutralise the threat from Oflog.
However, the LGA has refused to name and shame the 10 councils that have still not committed to a date to have a CPC – 13 years after the programme was launched.
Chief executive of the Office for Local Government, Josh Goodman, has said councils failing to have a CPC for a ‘very long time’ would be a ‘clear warning sign’ but the watchdog has ‘no plans’ to publicly list councils that have not had one.
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Shadow local government secretary Angela Rayner has promised to go ‘further and faster’ on devolution if elected to Government.
Speaking at the Convention of the North today, Rayner promised to be a ‘Deputy Prime Minister for the North’ and that the North would be 'in control of its own destiny’ should Labour clinch victory at the next General election later this year.
She reiterated her party’s proposals for a 'Take Back Control Act' to quicken the pace of devolution, and extend powers over skills, planning, housing and economic growth for combined authorities.
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West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and the Liverpool city region will all receive level four devolved powers, local government secretary Michael Gove has announced.
Speaking at the Convention of the North in Leeds today, Gove said the spread of devolution deals currently under way was the 'most profound change to the way England has been governed in generations’ and pledged a ‘power surge for the North’.
Greater Manchester and the West Midlands are the only combined authorities to have previously negotiated level four deals, which include a move to single pot financial settlements and retention of business rates.
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Fines for parents taking children out of school without permission will rise across England from September.
The minimum fine will increase from £60 to £80 per parent as part of a government drive to return attendance to pre-pandemic levels.
One school told BBC News one out of every three of its pupils absent without permission had been on a family holiday during term time.
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Nineteen cash-strapped English councils will be allowed to sell property and other assets to pay for services next year, the government has announced.
Councils are normally banned from selling assets to cover day-to-day spending.
But the government is relaxing the rules for authorities in deep financial trouble, including Birmingham and Nottingham.
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The government is minded to grant Bradford MDC £220m in exceptional financial support for two financial years but also handed out a best value notice due to concerns around “financial resilience”.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) has approved the council’s application for the use of capitalisation direction, but told the met to set up an independent advisory panel to provide “assurance of improvement” over financial performance.
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LGA analysis found that the impact of statutory minimum wage rises and other cost pressures in social care have wiped out any new funds, and still leaves leaving a £2.4 billion gap this year and a £1.6 billion gap in 2024/25. This is alongside it getting harder for the public to access social care as backlogs grow and demand is pushed around the system.
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Local government could be left to shoulder the burden of public sector cuts in a new age of austerity, experts have warned.
It is one of a handful of sectors that could be sacrificed in chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s pursuit of tax cuts in next week’s Budget.
In a new report this week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think-tank revealed commitments to health, schools, defence and overseas aid left a £20bn gap in funding for local government, further education, courts and prisons – ‘areas which bore the brunt of the cuts to public service spending in the 2010s’.
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The architect of legislation that introduced a new system for children with special educational needs and disabilities calls for new funding models
Councils need more funding in order to fulfil the “original ambition” of legislation reforming the system for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, the former minister responsible for its introduction has told LGC.
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More than half of charities fear financial challenges in local government pose a threat to their own future, a survey carried out as part of a major new analysis has found.
New analysis, titled Tethered Fortunes, by the charity sector think tank Pro Bono Economics (PBE) found that between 2009-10 and 2020-21 local authorities funding for charities had fall by 23%, equating to a £13.2bn cut over that period.
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The Government has announced £220m for councils to prevent families from becoming homeless and provide support for people sleeping rough.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said the funding was targeted towards the areas most in need.
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Councils across the North of England are almost twice as likely to fail financially within the next year as those in the South - according to an exclusive analysis for ITV News.
It reveals that 30% of northern Councils could be at risk of financial failure during the next 12 months - with 55% at risk within five years.
That compares to 17% in the first year for those in the South of England, rising to 35% within five years, according to the research by Grant Thornton, published a week before the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announces his latest budget.
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Victims and survivors of domestic abuse will be placed at risk if support services are cut due to the councils funding crisis, ministers have been warned. The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, Nicole Jacobs, said that because local authorities were under no legal obligation to fund most such services, they faced being reduced or scrapped by councils facing acute financial pressures. Heather Kidd, Chair of the LGA’s Safer, Stronger Communities Board, said: “Ongoing funding pressures and competing demands are making it increasingly difficult for councils to ensure that victims have access to all the help they need. Only with long-term, reliable funding can councils help safeguard individuals and families from the physical and psychological harm caused by domestic abuse. Investment in the prevention and early intervention measures are needed to tackle the root causes, support more victims and stop domestic abuse occurring in the first place.”
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Jeremy Hunt is expected to use next week’s Budget to cut national insurance rather than income tax as he announces a new levy on vaping. The Chancellor has significantly scaled back his planned cuts after official forecasts suggested he will have much less money to spend than expected. The two main tax cuts expected in the Budget are a 1 percentage-point reduction in employee national insurance, at a cost of about £4.5 billion a year, and an extension of the fuel duty freeze at a cost of £1 billion a year.
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The Government should not cut taxes in the upcoming Budget, unless it can spell out how it will afford them, a leading think tank has warned. The Chancellor has hinted he would like to lower taxes in what could be the last Budget before a general election. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the case for tax cuts was "weak". The Government said it would not comment on whether further cuts to tax would be "affordable in the Budget".
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An intense process used meetings with members, officers and external partners to explore seven broad lines of enquiry, writes the chief executive of Oxfordshire CC.
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A senior sector figure has expressed concerns about the Office for Local Government’s (Oflog) direction of travel.
Conservative Paul Bettison, a former member of the Oflog political leaders’ group and ex-chair of the Unitary Councils’ Network, said: ‘Right from the early stages we were conscious that if this was going to be accepted by everybody we didn’t want it to be the Audit Commission by another name.
'It’s amazing how much like it it’s started to look.’
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Almost three-quarters of schools in England are facing real-terms cuts since 2010 due to government funding decisions, analysis from a coalition of education unions suggests. New data released from School Cuts suggests before the Spring Budget next month that £12.2 billion of investment is needed to reverse the cuts 70 per cent of English state-funded schools have faced in the last 14 years. That would include funding to repair crumbling school buildings and tackle the crisis in special educational needs funding, the unions said.
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Britain’s stretched public services will buckle under the weight of the spending cuts being planned for after the election, economists have warned, as the Chancellor reportedly prepares for another round of tax reductions in next week’s Budget. Experts say the level of public sector spending pencilled in for the next parliament would mean cuts equivalent to those undertaken by David Cameron’s government from 2010 to 2015, with some warning the next government will not be able to implement them and be forced either to raise taxes or borrow more to fund emergency spending.
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The Government has outlined further details of how it would redirect funding from the cancelled northern legs of the HS2 rail line. Around £4.7 billion from cancelling the high-speed routes is due to be handed to councils outside big cities in the Midlands and northern England, with councils responsible for allocating funds to specific projects, in line with government guidance.
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The county of Norfolk contains some of the best stargazing spots in the UK and was one of the few places where it was possible to see the spectacle of the aurora borealis this winter, thanks to its dark skies unsullied by light pollution.
But the council’s attempts to plunge Norfolk roads into further darkness are being contested by groups worried about personal safety, particularly for women out alone.
The majority of councils across England and Wales have introduced measures to dim or cut street lights altogether over the past 15 years, some saving millions of pounds a year.
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Councils must still have the autonomy to run waste services according to local need under new packaging reforms, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which will shift the cost of dealing with waste from councils to producers, is set to be introduced next year after being delayed from 2023.
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Local government bodies have raised concerns about the Office for Local Government being “subject to political direction”.
In written evidence to the Commons’ levelling up, housing and communities committee’s inquiry into Oflog the Local Government Association said the lack of independence has “potential implications for public trust in Oflog”.
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The chair and chief executive of Oflog were grilled for almost two hours by MPs on the Commons' levelling up committee yesterday.
But despite some startling admissions the experience did little to clear up the confusion over what Oflog is actually for.
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Public services provision is seen as a partnership effort by central and local government in Japan, Germany and Italy, writes a senior research analyst at the House of Commons Library.
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Two former Conservative Cabinet ministers have hit out at plans to wind up England’s 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP).
The Government is to transfer LEP functions to combined and local authorities from April after arguing there is more scope for efficiencies.
But writing in The MJ this week, former local government secretary Greg Clark said LEPs did ‘outstanding work in bringing businesses and other economic leaders like universities together with councils to improve the economic prospects of their areas’.
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The Department for Education has issued Hertfordshire CC with an improvement notice following a negative report that identified "widespread and/or systemic failings" across the provision for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The council has been instructed to "improve" its local offer to address shortcomings outlined by the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection on 10 November 2023.
Concerns were raised over the variability of their provision, service gaps and delays, governance and quality assurance arrangements, the quality of their local data dashboard and the quality of educational, health and care plans (EHCP).
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South Cambridgeshire DC is proposing to continue its four-day working week beyond the trial period, without conducting a consultation locally because it needs to wait for the outcome of central government's review.
However, from April office-based staff will be expected to work 32 hours per week instead of 30, aligning them with those in waste management services.
The district started the trial in January 2023 for an initial three-month period, this was subsequently extended until March 2024 after independent analysis found it had been a success.
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Civil servants have issued a last-minute invitation for councils to claim cash from a fund that has suffered from poor take up by local authorities.
Councils were last month given just two weeks to submit an expression of interest to claim ‘potential underspend’ from the £750m Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF), which aims to help English local authorities obtain housing for those fleeing conflicts.
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Cutting taxes ahead of this year’s general election would only meet the government’s fiscal rule if some departments face a “fresh round of austerity”, which is unlikely given the state of public services, the Resolution Foundation has warned.
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The impact of ending the Household Support Fund would be ‘disastrous,’ urban councils have warned.
In a letter to chancellor Jeremy Hunt ahead of the Budget, chair of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities, Sir Stephen Houghton, said ending the fund would have ‘harmful consequences’.
He wrote: ‘A failure to continue the fund will leave the communities our members serve facing hardship and will squeeze local authority budgets even further as demand for other services increase in the absence of support through the fund.’
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Children’s services directors have raised concerns that Government policy does not prioritise children.
According to a paper from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), the number of children living in destitution has risen threefold to 4.2 million since 2017.
The ADCS said the national system for children with special needs was ‘profoundly broken’.
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The government removed funding totalling £538.8m from 16 projects that had been allocated grants from the housing infrastructure fund after deciding they were not deliverable.
These projects were intended to unlock over 42,000 homes.
A letter from Sarah Healey, permanent secretary of the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to Clive Betts, chair of the levelling up committee, which was published yesterday confirmed the projects were deemed not “deliverable within the parameters of the programme or were withdrawn by the local authority”.
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The Office for Local Government (Oflog) expects it will complete between four to six early warning conversations with councils that are at risk of failure next financial year, MPs were told yesterday.
Appearing before the Commons' levelling up, housing and communities committee yesterday, chief executive Josh Goodman and interim chair Amyas Morse told MPs Oflog plans to "improve" the early warning system for councils that may be at risk but are currently going unnoticed.
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Birmingham City Council is proposing to increase council tax by 9.99% for 2024-25 and again in 2025-26 and seeking a capitalisation direction worth £1.2bn to address the budget deficit.
Documents published yesterday evening ahead of cabinet meeting next week set out planned savings worth £300m over two years alongside a request for £1.2bn of exceptional financial support.
New analysis shows “significant structural issues” with a budget deficit of £165m over two years. This is in addition to the equal pay liability worth £750m.
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In response to ongoing funding pressures, 128 of 136 county councils will raise council taxes by UP TO 4.99 per cent in April, according to analysis by the County Councils Network. This analysis shows that at the same time last year, 75 per cent of councils planned to raise council tax by the maximum amount allowed as opposed to 95 per cent this year. The Independent reported a previous LGA survey of council leaders which found that nearly one in five said it is very or fairly likely they will need to issue a section 114 notice either this year or next.
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‘The Government must act now if local authorities are to survive the severe crisis and financial distress that they face.’
This is not a controversial opinion. In fact, it’s not even my opinion. These are the words of the cross-party Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, quoted directly from their recent report ‘Financial distress in local authorities’.
As the leader of Somerset Council, I have been sharing our story which highlights the scale of the national crisis, and shows just how broken the model of funding local government is. It’s a national problem. It needs a national solution.
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The Government’s proposed timeline for implementing changes to tackle risky borrowing by some councils could end up pushing local authorities into section 114 territory, district treasurers have warned.
A Government consultation on local authority capital flexibilities closed last week – just weeks before the new financial year, when the changes are expected to be implemented.
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The Office for Local Government’s data explorer will cover all the main services offered by the sector by the middle of next year, the watchdog has pledged.
The watchdog’s draft corporate plan also said it aimed to rationalise a ‘complex data landscape’ and its data explorer would offer a ‘considerably more exciting and insightful user experience than at present by mid-2025.
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Hertfordshire CC boss Owen Mapley will take over as Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) chief executive officer when Rob Whiteman retires, it has been announced.
Qualified chartered accountant Mr Mapley was Hertfordshire’s executive director of resources for three years, a finance director in the civil service and vice-chair of the Association of County Chief Executives.
CIPFA said there had been an ‘open and extensive recruitment process’ and Mr Mapley was the ‘outstanding choice’ among a ‘strong pool’ of candidates.
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Cheshire East Council has become the latest council to approach the Government for ‘exceptional financial support’ in a bid to avoid a section 114 notice.
The council is to ask the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) for a capitalisation direction worth up to £17.6m across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years.
Cheshire East cited the impact of inflation and high needs education spending as reasons for its financial plight, alongside £8.6m of abortive costs related to the now-cancelled leg of the HS2 rail link.
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National figures show just under half of all education, health and care plan (EHCP) requests in England are completed within the Government’s 20-week target. The number of children and young people with EHCPs has risen from 240,000 in 2015 to 517,000 last year. Alongside calling for funding to help meet rising demand, Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People’s Board said: “Improving levels of mainstream inclusion is also crucial, reducing the reliance on costly special schools and other settings. Powers to intervene in schools not supporting children with SEND should be brought forward at the earliest opportunity but should sit with councils, not the DfE.”
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Most councils have opted for the full council tax increase this year, but a handful of authorities are planning to increase rates by less than the maximum, LGC research has found.
Most councils this year have gone for the maximum rise permissible without a referendum. For upper tier areas this is 2.99% plus 2% social care precept, while for districts it is 3% or £5 whichever is higher.
However Rochdale MBC, Hartlepool BC, Tower Hamlets LBC, Stockton-on-Tees BC and Nottinghamshire CC have all proposed increases below the referendum cap.
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The union representing council chiefs has demanded “the same” pay award for its members as others in local government, warning that chiefs’ pay has fallen in real terms by 40%.
In 2023 chiefs were offered a 3.5% pay rise, compared with a 3.88% for those at the top of the NJC pay scale. In 2022 those at the top of the JNC pay scale received around 4% while chiefs are estimated to have seen an average increase of 1.3%.
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The "strategic remit" of the Office for Local Government (Oflog) for the next three years has been revealed in a letter by the communities secretary Michael Gove.
Mr Gove has set out the vision, purpose, strategic objectives and priorities of Oflog to the chief executive Josh Goodman, in correspondence published yesterday.
The strategic objectives for Oflog are to "inform" on the performance of local authorities, "warn" about councils at risk of failure that have "not raised the alarms themselves" and "support" local government to improve.
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Three districts intend to freeze council tax for 2024-25, with one leader pledging not to increase costs for residents “until we absolutely must”.
Harlow BC, Fenland DC and Harborough DC have all announced that they plan to freeze council tax this year.
Most councils have gone for the maximum rise permissible without a referendum. For upper tier areas this is 2.99% plus 2% social care precept, while for districts it is 3% or £5 whichever is higher.
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Second-home owners will have to seek planning permission for future short-term lets, the Government has announced.
A new mandatory national register will also give local authorities the information they need about short-term lets in their area.
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove said the move would help prevent a ‘hollowing out’ of communities and ensure local residents can access housing.
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced provisional investment allocations for the second Levelling Up Fund.
One of the programmes that has been selected for funding will be the Mid Cornwall Metro project, which will work to improve transport links in the county. Benefitting from almost £50 million of investment, four of the county’s largest urban areas will be connected through an hourly direct train service on an existing line, with two sections being improved.
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Campaigners are urging the government to double maternity pay amid fears mothers are making "drastic" choices because they cannot afford to live on the current statutory weekly amount.
The amount should be increased to £364.70, according to trade union Unison and charity Maternity Action.
Both organisations say they are concerned some women are going back to work early and skipping meals under the current amount.
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The LGA has warned that a failure to extend suicide prevention funding across England could have life or death consequences for people and is urging the Government to use the Spring Budget to extend funding for projects which it said provide “vital support” to those at-risk and the bereaved, as well as for awareness campaigns in local communities. Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “This suicide prevention funding has been a lifeline for many people. Without a commitment by the Government to extend this funding, these vital local schemes face an uncertain future which could have life or death consequences for those who rely on them.”
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Jeremy Hunt is said to have shelved plans for a 2p cut to income tax at next month’s Budget as it was revealed the economy has entered a recession. The Chancellor had been considering reducing the basic rate of income tax from 20 to 18 per cent and it is reported that he also considered reducing National Insurance employee contributions by two percentage points as an alternative
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People spending less, doctors' strikes and a fall in school attendance dragged the UK into recession at the end of last year, official figures show.
The economy shrank by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, after it had already contracted between July and September.
The UK is in recession if it fails to grow for two successive quarters.
The figures raise questions over whether Rishi Sunak has met his pledge made last January to grow the economy.
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A key fund at the heart of the government’s plans to clean up rivers has not been established 15 months after it was promised.
The water restoration fund was first pledged by Thérèse Coffey when she was environment secretary. She said it would redirect millions of pounds of raised from fines headed to the Treasury to pay to improve polluted waterways instead.
However, the fund does not exist, there is no timetable for its establishment and The Times can reveal that steering groups to establish it have not yet even met.
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District councils have warned that they face significant funding shortfalls in implementing the government’s plans to bring in weekly food waste collections from 2026.
Two thirds of councils expect not to hit the government’s deadline for introducing “simpler” recycling services.
The Simpler Recycling plan, published in October, includes plans to require councils to collect food waste on a weekly basis from 2026 – alongside the statutory collection of glass, metal, plastic, paper and card and garden waste.
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Essex CC will hold an inquiry into how it made payments of almost £500,000 to a local social media influencer during and after the covid pandemic.
The council’s leader Kevin Bentley (Con) admitted earlier this week that some circumstances around the payments made to comedian and campaigner Simon Harris had been “extremely regrettable and wrong”.
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Back in 2021, soon after the newly elected prime minister Boris Johnson vowed to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all”, the government proposed changes to the way that people pay for adult social care in England.
The current charging system has remained unchanged in principle for almost a century and has been criticised for its inequity, complexity, variability and unpredictability. It’s time for change.
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Councils have been told Whitehall will be unable to force them to submit productivity plans.
The MJ understands there will be no legal requirement for councils to comply with the requirement, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) also yet to announce any penalties for missing the July deadline.
There are thought to be no plans for the Government to issue guidance other than they should be ‘short and draw on work councils have already done’.
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Planning authorities in England’s 20 largest cities and towns could be subject to "brownfield presumption" under new government proposals.
The proposals which were launched yesterday by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DHLUC) were designed to boost building on brownfield sites by giving developers “more certainty” and ensuring that their plans were not “unnecessarily blocked or held up by red tape”.
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The UK's inflation rate remained unchanged in January, despite the first monthly fall in food prices in more than two years, official figures show.
Inflation, which measures how prices rise over time, was 4% last month.
The number surprised experts who had expected a rise in energy bills to push prices up at a faster rate.
However, the monthly drop in the price of food, including items such as crackers, cake and crisps helped offset the rise in electricity and gas costs.
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A bitter row has broken out between Suffolk CC and its districts over proposals to axe the county’s funding for housing-related support (HRS).
In a letter to district and borough councils, which have statutory responsibilities to provide accommodation to eligible people who are homeless, the county council warned the status quo of it being ‘expected to fund non-statutory services, which are then used by other councils to help them meet their own statutory priorities and needs’ could not continue.
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The LGA is proposing reforms to the Right to Buy scheme, ahead of next month’s Budget, in order to prevent the current net loss of much-needed social housing stock year on year currently being experienced by local authorities. The LGA said the main concern for councils is that rising discounts, alongside other measures that restrict councils use of Right to Buy receipts, mean that one household’s home ownership is increasingly being prioritised over another’s access to secure, safe, social housing. Cllr Darren Rodwell, Housing spokesperson for the LGA, said: “Whilst the Right to Buy can and has delivered home ownership for many, the current form does not work for local authorities and many of those most in need of housing support are simply unable to access secure, safe social housing.”
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Executive members of cash-strapped Nottingham City Council have refused to recommend a report that sets out £20m in budget cuts.
Council leader David Mellen said the majority Labour administration decided there was ‘little to recommend’ in a report that proposes cuts to library provision, the number of community protection officers and grants to the voluntary sector.
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Shadow local government secretary Angela Rayner has claimed Labour would treat councils with the ‘respect you deserve’ if the party wins the next General Election.
Addressing the Local Government Association Labour group’s annual conference yesterday, Rayner said Labour would boost council house building. The party also intends to devolve fresh powers over housing, planning, skills and transport to metro mayors and combined authorities.
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A rejected request to raise council tax above the referendum limit has left Somerset Council needing £17m more exceptional government support. The authority has said it is unable to balance its 2024-25 budget without £37m of financing flexibilities from the government.
The council asked to raise council tax by 10% (double the referendum limit, which is 5% including the social care precept) and for a £21m capitalisation direction, allowing the use of capital resources for revenue spending, rising to £38m if the tax request is rejected.
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Michael Gove has promised to prioritise homes for British citizens over foreign investors as he lobbies the Treasury to tax houses bought by foreigners.
The housing secretary said he is pressing “every day” for measures on housing affordability to be in next month’s budget, including a cut to stamp duty, state-backed 99 per cent mortgages and an extension of a discount scheme for first-time buyers.
Planning permission for homes will be automatically granted in urban areas that do not meet their housebuilding targets, while offices and shops will be able to be converted into housing more readily under plans to be announced this week.
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Councils across England are calling for a ban on pavement parking to ensure safer streets, according to a report. The study, commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA), warns that vehicles parked on kerbs pose risks to wheelchair users, older people and parents with pushchairs.
The investigation revealed that some vehicles completely block pavements, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road. Pavement parking can also damage the surface, creating trip hazards and leading to expensive repairs, added the report by active travel charity Sustrans and disability rights organisation Transport for All.
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Cash-strapped local authorities across the UK took out massive 50-year loans at soaring rates of interest in the aftermath of Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget, according to official figures that reveal more about the long-term cost to the public of her 49 days in office.
Figures from the government’s Debt Management Office show that after the budget on 23 September, 2022, announced by Truss’s chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, 24 50-year loans of between £590,000 and £40m were taken out by councils at interest rates of up to 4.77 %, over the rest of that year.
During 2023, while rates remained high, a further 29 50-year loans, including one of £80m by Lambeth council at an interest rate of more than 5%, were taken out as local authorities remained under severe financial pressure.
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Local Authorities in England are facing the possibility of a deadline to publish overdue accounts before September. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that it plans to bring in a “statutory backstop” in an effort to clear a high number of audit opinions by September 30. The Department said the backlog had reached an “unacceptable level”, which sat at over 700 at the end of 2023. In its report in June last year, the Public Accounts Committee noted that the market had been severely constrained, with fewer than 100 “key audit partners” registered to carry out the work across England.
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The Department for Education has said that all schools built with RAAC have responded to their survey and investigations into schools suspected of having RAAC have also now been completed. Of those confirmed to have RAAC concrete, 119 will be rebuilt or refurbished under the school rebuilding programme with a further 110 granted funds to remove the material. This comes as the National Audit Office revealed that 700,000 children are being taught in unsafe or ageing buildings.
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Productivity plans are “shallow” and risk over burdening local government, experts have told LGC, with one calling for the Local Government Association to “reflect” on its involvement.
On Monday the final local government settlement confirmed that in return for an additional £600m in funding councils would need to set out how they will “improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure” in productivity plans,
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MP for west Dorset Chris Loder (Con), who represents an "enormous county boundary" with Somerset, shared how his constituents were "looking with absolute horror" at the proposed tax rises at the unitary local authority during a Commons' debate yesterday.
Mr Loder also accused the Liberal Democrat administration of following a "mantra" to "raise taxes and cut services" after Somerset Council asked for permission to raise council tax by 9.99% to address a £100m "black hole". The government denied this request.
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MPs across the political divide urged ministers to "break out of the cycle" and work cross-party to reform local government finances in the Commons yesterday.
Throughout the debate on the local government finance settlement, politicians "of all colours" called for a more "strategic approach". The motion to approve the settlement was agreed.
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More than 1.5 million pupils in England have special educational needs, with the number of applications for a child Education, Health and Care plan rising by almost a quarter, leading to an increase in waiting times. Almost half of children are reportedly waiting beyond the statutory 20-week timeline for councils to issue a plan. Speaking to Channel 4 News, LGA Senior Vice Chairman Cllr Kevin Bentley said: “It’s not acceptable but because of the number we’re having to deal with and not having always the resources to be able to pay for that, that’s why it happens. It’s not deliberate, it’s bigger than just ‘give me more money’, it’s a society issue that we need to sit down both as politicians, as residents, as parents and have that conversation.”
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Austerity cuts to the NHS, public health and social care in England have been linked with a sharp increase in frailty, in the first study of its kind. The coalition government’s austerity programme in the early 2010s is associated with steeper increases in frailty with age compared with the pre-austerity years between 2002 and 2010, according to a study led by the University of Edinburgh.
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The Government has dropped a commitment to increase the amount of money that disabled people in England can claim to adapt their homes. The Disabled Facilities Grant is used to fund alterations aimed at easing living at home, such as installing wet-rooms or stairlifts. The LGA told a committee of MPs this week that £30,000 was "now insufficient for most major building work costs".
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Almost half of multi-academy trusts went into deficit last year, according to a financial health check on more than 2,300 schools in England. The benchmark report by Kreston UK, found that 47 per cent were running in-year deficits.
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‘Backstop’ dates designed to reset the local audit system could become a ‘permanent feature,’ the Government has admitted.
In a bid to slash the backlog, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) plans to introduce a deadline of September 30 to complete all outstanding audits – viewed as a bold and unprecedented proposal.
There would also be further backstop dates for the next five years, with the aim of ensuring backlogs do not reoccur.
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Councils have called for the cap on housing benefit subsidy that councils receive to be unfrozen amid warnings about the ‘spiralling increase’ in temporary accommodation (TA).
In a letter to chancellor Jeremy Hunt, District Councils’ Network (DCN) chairman, Sam Chapman-Allen lobbied for an increase in the subsidy rate that local authorities can claim for TA to 90% of market rent.
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A senior sector figure has called for clarity and certainty about how much funding councils will receive when producers start paying to recycle packaging.
Chair of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport’s waste group, Steve Palfrey, had called for authority-specific funding from Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to be published by the end of last year so that councils could meet the Government’s timescales.
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Uncertainties over funding have forced councils to push back their budget-setting with the deadline looming.
Both Birmingham City Council and Isle of Wight Council have postponed meetings to confirm their budgets, while Eastbourne BC drew up four different funding scenarios as they awaited confirmation from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
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Medway Council has asked the Government for an emergency loan to help the struggling local authority avoid being forced to declare effective bankruptcy.
The council, which is facing a £35.8m budget gap in 2024-25 and needs to find £12m for the current financial year, requested to borrow up to £14.6m in 2024-25 and a further £16.2m in 2025-26, and has also published proposals to increase parking charges and end a free swimming programme.
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Staffordshire County Council is facing legal action after the triathlete Paul Hughes hit a pothole while cycling breaking multiple bones and damaging a lung.
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A government consultation has revealed huge contentions over plans to crack down on local authorities implementing four-day working weeks.
In the consultation over the provisional local government finance settlement for 2024-25, which was published in December, the government sought views from across the sector on the use of financial levers to disincentivise councils from "operating part time work for full time pay".
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In an opinion piece, Observer columnist Will Hutton references the LGA’s estimates that one in five councils risk issuing a section 114 notice over the next two years. He also quotes the cross-party Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee’s report from last week, which said the financial crisis in local government is now ‘out of control’.
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Labour is reportedly planning only limited first-term reforms of social care and a smaller green investment plan, as part of a stripped-down general election manifesto. Shadow cabinet ministers are said to have been given until 8 February to make policy submissions for the manifesto.
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New analysis ranks councils based on reports from residents sent to FixMyStreet, a website which sends maintenance requests to councils and publishes the response times. Reports are marked as “open”, meaning they have not been resolved, or “fixed”. An LGA spokesperson said: “Councils are working hard to try and tackle the £14 billion backlog of road repairs. Many factors affect repair rates, such as the road profile, traffic levels and available budgets. Councils would much prefer to focus on preventative repairs but only greater, year-on-year funding for maintaining all parts of our highways will help them achieve this.”
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Ministers have been warned that more families risk falling into poverty if a “lifeline” hardship fund used to help struggling households buy food and heat their homes is not extended. The LGA said the Government’s cost of living support provision, the Household Support Fund, is due to end on 31 March and had provided £820 million in funding for millions of households in England facing financial difficulties over the last year. Its own survey of members found more than eight out of 10 local authorities that responded said financial hardship had increased in their areas over the same period. LGA Economy and Resources Board Chair, Cllr Pete Marland, said: “The Household Support Fund has provided an essential lifeline for our most vulnerable residents, but our survey shows this help is needed now more than ever. Now is not the time to scale back support.”
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The retirement age will have to rise to 71 for middle-aged workers across the UK, according to research from the International Longevity Centre. The UK pension age of 66 is set to rise to 67 between May 2026 and March 2028. From 2044, it is expected to rise to 68. But the research suggests that this is not enough, and that anyone born after April 1970 may have to work until they are 71 before claiming their pension.
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Citizens Advice and Age UK have warned of the ‘devastating impact’ of the financial pressures on councils. The charities have said that a number of councils have reduced grant funding to services run by the voluntary sector in attempt to prioritise spending on statutory services.
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Local government should adopt a national branding campaign to recruit and retain staff amid a worsening workforce crisis, the County Councils’ Network has urged.
A comprehensive study of council workforces by CCN, carried out by consultancy PwC and published today, concluded staffing capacity was ‘one of the biggest challenges facing local government in England, worsened by over a decade of funding challenges and exacerbated in recent years by post-pandemic trends’.
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Somerset Council has set out plans to cut its workforce by up to 25% in a bid to close its £100m funding gap.
The Liberal Democrat executive will consider a "workforce transformation" plan on Wednesday that would open up voluntary redundancy scheme later this month and potentially save £40m from their payroll bill.
The plan outlines their hope to "move away from silo working" and "maximise the opportunity of bringing together the five predecessor councils and meet the financial challenge".
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Heightened council tax referendum limits for Thurrock Council, Woking BC, Slough BC and Birmingham City Council have been confirmed in today's local government finance settlement.
Thurrock, Working and Slough now have permission to increase their rates by up to 10%, for the social care authorities this comprises of 2% for adult social care and 8% for the rest.
However, Somerset Council's request for a 9.99% increase was not listed in this announcement.
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The government is offering £1,000 to new childcare staff amid concerns about the rollout of free childcare hours in just two months' time.
Nurseries and childminders say they are experiencing a recruitment and funding crisis which could derail plans to offer 15 subsidised hours a week to all two-year-olds in England.
Thousands of parents who have applied for the funding are thought to be in limbo as their provider hasn't been told what rate they will get for each of these hours from the local authority.
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A file relating to allegedly unlawful exit payments to managers at Northumberland County Council has been handed to police, Northumbria Police has confirmed.
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Analysis has uncovered an almost £500m reduction in councils’ spending on libraries, culture, heritage and tourism since the onset of austerity.
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The government is under pressure over the future of a "vital" fund that councils have been using to support thousands of families during the cost of living crisis.
The "targeted and impactful support" local authorities provide through the Household Support Fund (HSF) is due to end in March, with no renewal nor any other future government grants yet to be announced.
Council leaders across the country have written to ministers calling for the fund to continue or for a new scheme that would address the challenges their residents are facing.
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The financial crisis facing England's councils is "out of control" with even well-run local authorities at risk of going bust, MPs have warned.
A cross-party committee said the government must plug a £4bn funding gap to avoid a "severe impact" on services.
They also called for council tax to be reformed, describing the current system as "outdated" and "regressive".
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Transport spokesperson for the LGA, Cllr Linda Taylor, was interviewed live on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme about the redistribution of funds from the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2, to repair and resurface local roads. Cllr Taylor said: “We’ve had over £300 million for this year and next, but the bulk of the money which is £8 billion is going to be available from 2025/26. So we know what’s going to be happening for this year and next, but we do need to be able to have that assurance about financial commitments from the Treasury for at least the next five years.”
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Jeremy Hunt has said there is likely to be less scope for tax cuts in the March Budget than there was last autumn. The Chancellor said he wanted to “lighten the tax burden” to help grow the economy, but he said this had to be done in a “responsible” way.
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The current funding system is “broken” and the next government should consider options such as replacing council tax with a land value levy and devolving a share of central taxes to authorities, a Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee report said.
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Government response to the Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities Select Committee report on Council Tax Collection
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is consulting on a law that will impose a nationwide salary threshold for new social housing tenants. As part of the plans, the Government said those who commit anti-social behaviour should face a ban of up to five years under the proposals. People with the closest connections to the UK and their local areas would also receive priority for social housing. Cllr Darren Rodwell, LGA housing spokesperson, said: “The vast majority of social housing lettings go to UK nationals, and many councils already have policies relating to anti-social behaviour, criminal behaviour, rent arrears and income thresholds in their allocation policies.” Cllr Rodwell said the LGA is concerned that “restricting eligibility criteria for social housing” could result in a rise in homelessness.
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Analysis of local government finances shows that, between 2010/11 and 2022/23, net spending per person by councils on cultural services was cut by 43 per cent in real terms, on roads and transport spending by 40 per cent, on housing by 35 per cent and on planning and development by a third. This is a result of growing demand for social care and homelessness support. Core spending power available to councils after the recently announced extra £600m uplift will still be 10 per cent lower than in 2010/11, it is reported.
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Under plans being considered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, councils would be given greater flexibility to use money raised from asset sales to meet their budget pressures. The Government said the consultation – which closes today – aims to encourage the sale of assets held only for revenue, and not buildings or places used for the “delivering of the objectives of the local authority”.
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Debt-ridden Thurrock Council could lose money on investment made in a solar energy company to which it lent more than £650m, it has emerged.
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The government is considering allowing local authorities more freedom to use capital resources to reduce the pressure on their revenue budgets amid dire warnings over the sector’s sustainability, but caution is needed, Nicole Wood, president of the Society of County Treasurers, told PF.
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The Government has been accused of ‘micromanagement’ of council finances with the launch of new productivity measures.
Alongside the announcement of a £600m boost to the local government finance settlement, new demands for productivity plans and a clampdown on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programmes by local government secretary Michael Gove have sparked alarm.
Councils will be required to submit productivity plans to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) by the summer recess in July, detailing how they will ‘improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure’.
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People in Yeovil and Taunton will have to pay nearly two or three times as much council tax from April.
Both town councils approved their annual budget on Tuesday, which included setting their portion of the council tax bill paid by residents.
A Band D home in Taunton will pay an extra £192 a year. A similar household in Yeovil will pay an extra £130.
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Government officials have told councils they expect the maximum possible 4.99 per cent increase in council tax in April, it is reported. Local government leaders and experts have warned that raising council tax is not the answer to the financial pressures facing councils, raising different amounts in different parts of the country.
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Councils are facing growing challenges to provide social care services, including respite care, due to a lack of funding to meet rising demand. Speaking to Channel 4, LGA Community Wellbeing Board Chairman Cllr David Fothergill said that services remain at “crisis point”.
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The details of productivity plans that councils will need to produce “haven’t been designed yet”, the director general for local government revealed yesterday.
In a written statement last week, communities secretary Michael Gove announced that local authorities will need to set out how they will “improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure” in productivity plans as part of an additional £500m in funding for 2024-25 that social care authorities will share.
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Durham County Council will consider seeking a judicial review into how the Government allocated levelling up funding after the authority spent £1.2m on failed bids.
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Isle of Wight Council has insisted it borrows to invest in essential projects after revealing its debt amounts to 42% of the authority’s annual budget.
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An education system divided between academies and council-maintained schools has become ‘undesirable and unsustainable’, according to an education think tank.
A new report from EDSK says that operating two parallel systems with different approaches to funding, curricula, governance, admissions, and oversight has created a ‘fragmented and confusing’ school system.
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MPs have been left ‘disturbed’ by the state of the local government audit system, top officials have been told.
The Levelling up, Housing and Communities Committee questioned senior mandarins on plans to reset local audit.
Committee member Mary Robinson, said they had been ‘disturbed’ by the extent of the backlog and late completions.
Director general for local government at the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Catherine Frances, revealed that consultation on setting a 30 September ‘backstop’ to complete outstanding audits would take place in early February.
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South Cambridgeshire DC’s controversial four-day week trial is under fresh scrutiny after data revealed a spike in agency work and opponents challenged costs.
The district was issued with a best value notice by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in November 2023, amid concerns that giving staff an extra day off weekly could become costly.
Data supplied to DLUHC indicates that, in November, South Cambs spent significantly more on agency workers across two departments – finance and waste – than normal. However, other departments have reduced agency use, and a council spokesperson said the district could still halve its total bill for agency staff.
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The government’s mooted solution to the local audit crisis needs to work, or the Whole of Government Accounts risks being stuck in poor quality for several years, a group of MPs has warned.
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Shadow levelling up secretary Angela Rayner has avoided committing Labour to providing local government with additional funding if the party wins the impending General Election.
In an interview with The Guardian, she branded the Government’s £600m boost to the Local Government Funding Settlement a ‘sticking plaster’ which was ‘cynically’ only aimed at getting the Conservatives through the election.
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A better-than-expected outlook for public finances is likely to give chancellor Jeremy Hunt headroom for tax cuts ahead of the general election, an economist has said.
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Nottingham City Council has requested £65m of exceptional government support to balance its budgets in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
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Work should begin now on the ‘long-overdue’ revaluation of all domestic properties in England to bolster local government finance, a think-tank has argued.
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The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed Adam Hawksbee as interim Chair for the new high-powered Towns Unit to ensure the voices of UK towns are heard loud and clear across government and that vital regeneration comes to life.
Adam, Deputy Director of the think tank Onward, will help deliver the government’s Long-Term Plan for Towns, backed by £1.1 billion overall, to regenerate 55 towns around the country so people can feel proud of the place they call home.
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A £600m boost to the Local Government Finance Settlement has been welcomed, but has not resolved the sector’s funding issues, the Government has been warned.
The bulk of the extra funding announced today by levelling up secretary Michael Gove is accounted for by £500m being added to the social care grant.
It was a key demand of the County Councils Network, which led a campaign that saw 46 MPs, including a host of former minister, signing a letter calling for increased funding.
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A senior local government figure has struck back at Government efforts to curb the adoption of a four-day working week by councils.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)’s intention to use ‘financial levers’ to ‘disincentivise’ councils has been described as a ‘slippery slope’ by ALACE honorary secretary and Wyre Forest DC chief executive Ian Miller.
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The Government is to clampdown on diversity programmes as part of a drive to ‘reduce wasteful expenditure’.
Councils will be required to submit ‘productivity plans’ to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) setting out how they will ‘improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure’.
In a ministerial statement, local government secretary Michael Gove said: ‘I encourage local authorities to consider whether expenditure on discredited equality, diversity and inclusion programmes meets this objective.’
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The Government has announced details of a new devolution deal for Devon CC and Torbay Council.
If agreed, after a consultation with residents, the move will create a new Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority (CCA).
The new body will receive £14.8m from the Shared Prosperity Fund over three years, as well as £16m in new capital funding to support housing and net zero priorities; and will have greater collaboration with Homes England to ‘reduce the barriers to affordable housing delivery’.
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MPs have been angered by the timing of the Government’s announcement of extra funding for social care.
A ministerial statement revealing councils would receive an additional £500m for adult social care was released while the Public Accounts Committee was holding an evidence session on the subject yesterday afternoon.
Committee chair, Dame Meg Hillier, said the committee would be seeking answers on the timing of the announcement.
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Ahead of the roll-out of the expansion to free early education entitlements, local authorities across England have warned there may not be enough childcare places to meet demand.
From April eligible parents of two-year-olds will be offered 15 free hours per week of free childcare. In September, this will be available for children from nine months until the start school.
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A new requirement for councils to produce productivity plans shows “central government doesn’t trust local government," the chair of the Special Interest Group of Metropolitan Authorities has warned.
The government today announced an extra £600m for local government, but in a written statement announcing the funding communities secretary Michael Gove also said local authorities will need to set out how they will “improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure” in productivity plans, to be submitted before the summer recess.
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Leigh Whitehouse has been nominated as the interim chief executive of Surrey CC.
If approved at the full council meeting on 6 February, Mr Whitehouse would be stepping in for Joanna Killian, who has taken up the post of chief executive of the Local Government Association, from March.
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The government is expected to announce an extra £500m in funding for social care as part of the 2024-25 local government finance settlement later today, LGC has been told.
This comes days after 46 MPs wrote to the prime minister Rishi Sunak urging for extra funding to be found, in a campaign led by the County Councils Network and the counties all party parliamentary group.
LGC understands that following this letter chair of the APPG and county council leader Ben Bradley (Con) among others have been in talks with senior ministers to negotiate these extra funds.
It is expected that around £500m will be designated to social care authorities to be spent on adults and children's services while districts will see an increase in their funding guarantee from 3% to 4% which will equate to around £40m
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Residents in Birmingham are trying to preserve landmarks and public buildings as fears grow that assets will be sold off to balance their books, with historic buildings, libraries, parks, entertainment venues, car parks and community centres all in consideration. The LGA has previously warned that councils face a funding gap of £4bn over the two years and LGA Chair Cllr Shaun Davies told Sky News that: "No council is immune to the growing risk to their financial sustainability and many now face the prospect of being unable to meet their legal duty to set a balanced budget and having Section 114 reports issued. It is therefore unthinkable that the government has not provided desperately needed new funding for local services in 2024-25. Although councils are working hard to reduce costs where possible, this means the local services our communities rely on every day are now exposed to further cuts.”
[ more...]
A Freedom of Information request to 280 councils has found that between April and October 2023 and the same period in 2022, there had been a rise of 20 per cent in occasions that bailiffs were used to recover council debts. Debts can include council tax, parking fines, housing arrears and unpaid business rates among other unpaid fees.
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Almost 30 councils are planning to make use of new powers to increase council tax on second homes in a move which is expected to collectively raise £100m in additional income, LGC research has found.
As part of measures in the Levelling Up & Regeneration Act 2023 councils are able to charge a council tax premium of up to 100% for any property left empty for more than 72 days a year.
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Dozens of MPs, including more than 40 Tories, have written to the PM demanding extra funding for councils in England to avoid big cuts to services.
Several former cabinet ministers are among those who have signed the letter.
The group say they are "exceptionally concerned" at the measures many local authorities are planning as they try to avoid going bust, including raising council tax and cutting services.
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Schools in urgent need of repair have told BBC Panorama they are struggling to keep children warm in buildings that are “not fit for purpose”. The Government's own figures show the average primary in England needs £300,000 worth of maintenance or upgrades, while the average secondary school needs an estimated £1.5 million.
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The LGA’s survey which found nearly one in five councils have warned they could issue a section 114 notice over the next year was reported on BBC Radio 4’s The Briefing Room, in a discussion about the financial pressures facing local government . Recently released figures show councils across the UK are nearly £100 billion in debt.
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The Chancellor says he wants to cut taxes at the spring budget this year, declaring that doing so will be the quickest route to getting the economy growing again. Jeremy Hunt said that while he has yet to see the fiscal numbers ahead of the March event, he is hopeful of reducing taxes.
[ more...]
An above-inflation increase in council spending power for 2024-25 shows “the government stands behind councils”, levelling up secretary Michael Gove has insisted despite warnings from the sector that it faces a financial crisis.
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Oxfordshire County Council has published proposals to save over £9.8m but is still £900,000 short of what is required for a balanced budget.
The council was facing a budget shortfall of £9.1m but this increased to £11.2m in December when it became clear that grant funding from Government was not as much as anticipated.
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A number of councils have applied to the government for “exceptional financial support”, seeking a capitalization direction that allows them to fund day-to-day spending from their capital resources, including borrowing and asset sales. It is reported that the Department for Levelling Up expects only a small number of councils to issue a Section 114 notice, they do expect more to “go down the EFS route”, according to department sources. A survey by the LGA found that one in five councils believe they are fairly or very likely to issue a Section 114 notice this year or next.
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The Adam Smith Institute think-tank has suggested public funding should not be spent servicing local government pensions when local services are facing cutbacks. Of the 10 councils that have been subject to a Section 114 notice, it is reported that seven are part of a pension scheme that recorded a surplus of assets as of the end of March 2022. One is enrolled in a scheme that was fully funded while only two reported a deficit. The LGA said that pensions are a statutory duty, are legally guaranteed and must be paid. It added that councils had been forced to find savings through redundancies or hold vacant posts open, which reduces councils’ pension payments.
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An inadequate funding settlement means councils face “serious challenges” including further cuts to balance their 2024-25 budgets, the Local Government Association has said.
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The next Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has been confirmed as Amerdeep Somal by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove following a rigorous selection process.
Ms Somal will start in post on 1st February 2024, bringing with her a wealth of experience having previously served as the Complaints Commissioner to the Financial Regulators and Chief Commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission.
She has also been appointed as Chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England, the official body which runs the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman service.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints from members of the public about local councils and social care providers. The Ombudsman is appointed by His Majesty the King on the advice of the Secretary of State, and the Ombudsman’s investigations are independent of central government.
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An MP has called for “billions” to be unlocked from section 106 payments to top up funding for levelling up projects.
Earlier this week the Commons’ public accounts committee took evidence from senior officials from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities on levelling up funding for local governments, reports Sarah Kennelly.
During the meeting Mark Francois (Con), MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, claimed that Essex CC has “£140m of section 106 commitments that have not yet been spent”.
Mr Francois suggested that if this was replicated across England and Wales “you're now talking about several billion pounds of resource yet to be deployed”.
[ more...]
Middlesbrough Council is applying for exceptional financial support of up to £15m over three years.
Yesterday the council's executive board unanimously approved plans to launch negotiations for emergency funding support with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council's executive member for finance, Nicky Walker (Lab) told the meeting that this is "a move by which we seek to avoid a section 114 notice".
[ more...]
Millions of pounds of funding into social care last year is said to have made no difference to the financial sustainability of the majority of providers, according to a snapshot report by learning disability charity Hft and Care England. Cllr David Fothergill, Chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “This concerning report shows the multitude of pressures care providers are facing due to lack of financial support.”
[ more...]
The annual rate of inflation has surprisingly risen, official figures show. The consumer price index measure of inflation stood at 4 per cent in the year to December, according to the Office for National Statistics. A fall, to 3.8 per cent, had been expected by economists polled by Reuters. But instead inflation rose from 3.9 per cent in the 12 months to November.
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Appetite for government intervention to reduce the use of packaging, either through taxes or bans, is lower among MPs than with the public, new research has found.
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The election of the first mayor of a new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority is set to cost £2.2m, a council report has revealed.
At a meeting on 22 January, a committee overseeing the formation of the new combined authority will consider its first budget, which covers a 15-month period from January 2024 to March 2025.
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Social care cuts risk being made ways that risk “removing someone’s right to dignity, choice and control”, a campaign group has told LGC.
Many councils are looking to reduce their spending in adult care services, in a bid to close a £4bn sector-wide budget gap, writes Sarah Kennelly.
In some places this could entail further restrictions on the type of support offered, care home closures and fee increases.
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IMPOWER has announced the appointment of Mark Lloyd as an executive director.
Lloyd, former chief executive of the Local Government Association (LGA), will take up the role later this month.
Lloyd said: ‘I’m a long-time admirer of IMPOWER, having known and worked with colleagues over the years.
‘I am excited about the prospect of working with a dynamic consultancy that is focused on delivering better outcomes that cost less.’
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Distancing the sector from the most serious failures would allow a clearer focus on the struggles of the majority of councils, writes LGC editor Sarah Calkin.
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Cornwall Council is to debate a motion calling for greater protection for elected members against harassment, abuse and intimidation.
The motion, called Defending Democracy, has been submitted for debate by Thalia Marrington and seconded by Karen Glasson.
The motion also points out that the abuse of councillors, especially females, has increased nationally.
It will be discussed on Tuesday at the council's first full meeting of 2024.
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The debt mountain at UK councils has reached staggering levels, posing a risk to local services, the Public Accounts Committee has said.
BBC analysis shows UK councils owe a combined £97.8bn to lenders, equivalent to £1,100 per person, as of September.
Committee chair Meg Hillier warned of an "extreme and long-lasting effect" if more councils go bust.
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Four in 10 councils are at risk of issuing a Section 114 notice over next five years according to analysis from Grant Thornton. The analysis found that in 2025, 25 per cent of councils will have cash reserves of less than 5 per cent of their annual budget, climbing to 40 per cent over the next five years. LGA research has found that half of council leaders were not confident they will have enough funding to fulfil their legal duties in 2024/25. Cllr Shaun Davies, LGA Chair, said: “It is unthinkable that the Government has not provided desperately needed new funding for local services in 2024/25. It urgently needs to address the growing financial crisis facing councils.”
[ more...]
Almost 630,000 potholes were reported to councils in England, Scotland and Wales between January and November 2023 according to FOI requests from campaign group Round Our Way which it claims is a new five year high. Cllr Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the LGA said: “Councils share the concerns of all road users with the state of our roads and are doing all they can to tackle the £14 billion backlog of road repairs, including learning from and adopting innovative techniques. Greater, long-term and year-on-year consistency of funding for the maintenance of all parts of our highways will help them achieve this.”
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Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has warned that it could in effect become insolvent because of the deficits it has accumulated on special education needs. The Government has confirmed that the statutory override on dedicated school grant budget deficits will continue until March 2026 but the LGA said councils need longer-term certainty. It said: “We continue to call for the Government to write off all high-needs deficits as a matter of urgency to provide certainty and ensure that councils are not faced with having to cut other services to balance budgets through no fault of their own or their residents.”
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Pothole-related breakdowns reached a five-year high in 2023, new figures show.
The AA said it received 632,000 call outs to vehicles damaged by road defects last year.
That is a 16% increase compared with the previous 12 months, and is the most since 666,000 in 2018 when many roads were damaged by prolonged extreme cold weather from the so-called Beast from the East.
Common vehicle problems caused by potholes include punctures, distorted wheels, damaged shock absorbers and broken suspension springs.
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A council has warned that it could in effect become insolvent this year because of the huge financial deficits it has racked up on special education needs, in the latest development in the local government funding crisis.
Most councils in England have overspent their budgets on special education needs and disabilities (Send) since 2015, when the government extended the age range of young people who qualify for Send support without providing councils with the necessary funding. These deficits have fed into councils’ overall education budgets – known as the dedicated schools grant (DSG).
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council has accumulated a combined deficit of around £60m on its DSG budget in recent years and says it cannot eradicate it without making unacceptable cuts to Send services and mainstream school budgets. Moreover, a recent BCP council report warned that its financial solvency is at imminent risk because of government accountancy rules.
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Households in Birmingham face a 21 per cent rise in council tax, adding £350 to average bills. Birmingham City Council has asked Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove for permission to increase charges by up to 10 per cent in April and up to 10 per cent the year after. If he agrees, the increases of 10 per cent each year for two financial years could add up to a potential 21 per cent overall increase by April 2025. Birmingham, which issued a section 114 notice in September, will set out its final council tax plans next month. The LGA has warned that one in six councils is at risk of issuing a section 114 over the next two years.
[ more...]
The UK's economy rebounded in November after shrinking during the previous month, according to official figures. The economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the month, which was stronger than expected and came after a contraction in October.
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Councils have begun 2024 by urgently lobbying Whitehall over extra financial support amid widespread concern the provisional finance settlement falls far short of what’s needed.
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The leader of North Northamptonshire Council has banned all but essential spending in an urgent bid to solve the authority’s budget pressures.
Cllr Jason Smithers has warned the council needs to ‘take immediate action' to rein in its spending.
In an email to all council staff, Cllr Smithers said that despite ‘efficiency measures’ being worked on, ‘further robust action’ was now needed ‘immediately’ to reduce spending and balance the budget.
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Cash-strapped Thurrock Council has pledged residents will not face a 10% council tax rise – but still needs to confirm how much extra they must pay.
Councillors met this week to discuss a range of budget saving measures. They approved £11.3m of proposed savings for 2024/5, whilst a further £6.9m savings are still out to consultation or need further development.
Areas facing cuts include moving from weekly to alternate week kerbside recycling collections, and a restructuring of children’s social care.
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Middlesbrough Council is set to ask the Government for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) as it battles to achieve a balanced budget for 2024-25 and avoid issuing a section 114.
A paper going before councillors next week is expected to call on the unitary’s executive to allow officers to make the plea of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
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Finance experts argue that the proposed 'backstop' for outstanding local audits is necessary but "hundreds" of accounts are expected to be qualified or disclaimed as a result.
A new proposed compulsory deadline of 30 September for all outstanding financial assessments was announced at the Local Government Association (LGA)'s finance conference this week.
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Finance directors have expressed “nervousness” that the timing of government plans for capitalisation flexibilities could lead to “unsustainable” debt for some councils.
Communities minister Michael Gove launched a call for views on “developing options for the use of capital resources and borrowing to support and encourage invest-to-save activity” and “more flexibilities to use capitalisation without the requirement to approach government” in December.
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Proposed changes to the rules governing use of capital receipts are remarkable, writes the director of LSE London.
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The Bank of England may be forced to bring forward the date of its first interest rate cut after three leading forecasters issued a surprise update suggesting the inflation rate will halve to 2% by April.
The Oxford Economics consultancy and analysts at Investec and Deutsche Bank have reassessed their outlook for inflation in 2024 and concluded that the consumer prices index (CPI), which dropped to 3.9% in November last year, will fall below 2% within four months.
A slump in energy prices and the cost of oil on international wholesale markets will, they say, bring down inflation at a faster rate than the Bank of England expected when it reviewed price rises in November.
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Government departments should consistently evaluate which aspects of their work would benefit from local management, writes the director of policy at Reform. Local government in England must navigate a maze of unclear mandates, overcentralisation, constrained resources and rocketing demand.
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A campaign to end a loophole which is estimated to cost councils a massive £250m in lost business rates revenue has been backed by senior politicians.
‘Box shifting’ involves landlords exploiting a legal loophole in business rates relief by placing boxes in an empty commercial property to claim the space is occupied for six weeks. The boxes are then removed to claim three months of empty rates relief, with the cycle repeated. The practice adds little or no social value and causes councils to lose more than two-thirds of their rates income every time it happens.
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A bill aimed at banning local authorities from boycotting Israel has passed the Commons despite being branded as ‘illiberal and draconian’.
The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill seeks to stop public bodies joining the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
The BDS campaign aims to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians. The movement’s critics accuse it of antisemitism.
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Local authorities across England have called on the Government to give them more powers to deal with empty properties and holiday homes. It comes as a log jam in the social rental sector, high costs in the private rental sector and the chronic undersupply of housing nationwide have forced councils to find temporary accommodation for record numbers of people. A lack of government funding has put almost one in five councils at risk of facing a Section 114 notice, according to the LGA.
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Encouraging councils to use reserves as a one-off quick fix during the funding crisis is “misguided and unhelpful” and could put more authorities at risk of Section 114 notice, a finance director has said in response to a minister’s comments.
Local government minister Simon Hoare said “authorities can and indeed should” consider drawing on their reserves to meet any funding pressures because council cash balances have generally increased since the beginning of the pandemic.
However, Michael Hudson, executive director of finance and resources Cambridgeshire County Council, said Section 151 Officers allocate and use reserves with the full understanding and knowledge of their future financial risks.
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Shoppers and retailers are set for a "challenging" year ahead, according to The British Retail Consortium. The trade body has warned that higher living costs will continue to squeeze household budgets.
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Local government minister Simon Hoare has said councils ‘can and should consider drawing on their reserves’ to help deal with the financial crisis.
The suggestion has been labelled ‘ridiculous’ by the shadow minister and faced criticism from sector figures.
‘The overall balance of reserves is up post-Covid,’ Hoare told the Local Government Association’s local government finance conference this week.
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The number of pothole-related claims increased by a record 40% last year when compared to 2022, the latest data from Admiral Car Insurance has revealed.
Ahead of National Pothole Day on 15th January, the insurer said that 2023 was set to be a record year for claims relating to potholes with a 138% increase since 2016.
[ more...]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has failed to commit to making the Household Support Fund (HSF) available to councils in 2024-25.
Writing in The MJ, Camden LBC’s executive director of corporate services Jon Rowney called the HSF a ‘critical feature of our cost-of-living crisis support’.
[ more...]
Councils face multi-million pound bills as a result of the digital switchover of the telephone system.
The network is due to shift from analogue landlines to internet-based systems by the end of 2025.
Work is still under way to gauge the full extent of impacts on local government, but technology upgrades will be required in areas such as adult social care, IT, transportation and security, and the Local Government Association (LGA) has highlighted the potential for supply chain issues.
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Struggling districts have been advised to consider reorganisation in place of the government increasing the amount they can raise from council tax, LGC has learned, as frustration grows over the £5 cap on increases that has left the police raising more than districts in some areas.
Senior officers have told LGC that during a briefing on the provisional local government finance settlement for leaders and chief executives before Christmas local government minister Simon Hoare (Con) suggested that reorganisation could help to prevent further financial distress.
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Section 114 notices risk becoming “normalised”, the chair of the Local Government Association has warned, branding it “lazy” to lay all of the blame for councils’ financial difficulties at mismanagement.
In a New Year interview with LGC, Shaun Davies (Lab) said he expected more councils to issue 114 notices declaring they are unable to balance the books “over the next few weeks”.
He also hit out at chancellor Jeremy Hunt for failing to act on social care and said the proportion of council budgets now going on adults and children’s services as well as homelessness should spark a “big debate” about what the government wants councils to provide
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Nottingham City Council must publish a report into its accounting practices the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ruled.
Last year Ernst & Young was commissioned to review how Nottingham managed its finances after it emerged in 2021 that the council had “unlawfully” used funds from its housing revenue account to prop up its general fund.
Nottingham released part of the review’s findings but did not disclose the full document.
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The LGA said councils need assistance from the Government with the transition from analogue to digital telecommunication products for the most vulnerable residents, a scheme which will cost councils millions of pounds. It has said that the move towards digital, to be completed by the end of 2025 and landline calls being switched to the internet, is not being effectively communicated. The Department of Health and Social Care estimates that 1.8 million people used telecare services.
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Official government forecasts show that disability benefit spending could rise by £17 billion a year to £48 billion by the end of the decade as a predicted 2 million more people are expected to claim disability benefit for mental health challenges. Depression and anxiety are now leading reasons for adults to receive benefits, which coupled with our ageing population could see spending rise to £80 billion a year by 2030, about half the current cost of the NHS.
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Jeremy Hunt’s key Budget promise to expand free childcare in 2024 is reportedly fast unravelling amid “chaos” over funding arrangements. The Chancellor had announced a major extension of free care for this spring, but experts say the sector has not been given enough cash or support to deliver his pledge. Eligible working parents of two-year-olds have been told they can claim 15 hours a week of free childcare from 1 April, but councils have warned the funding will not be in place for nurseries by then. Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Unfortunately, information for local authorities and providers has only recently been made available by central government, and this means they are having to work within a challenging timeframe to ensure arrangements are in place to expand before the start of the April rollout.”
[ more...]
Rishi Sunak has pledged to curb benefits and government spending to fund tax cuts before and after a general election. The Prime Minister said he would use measures such as the hiring freeze on civil servants to bear down on Britain’s welfare bill and overall government spending.
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Baroness Heather Hallett’s independent Covid-19 inquiry will issue a detailed interim report “before the summer” on the first batch of public hearings held last June and July. A second report from Hallett – into the political decision-making during the pandemic (module 2) – will not now be published until early 2025.
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Around two-thirds of the £4.2bn Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) remains unspent more than six years after its launch, despite the chronic shortage of housing, according to reports.
The HIF was launched in 2017 and was designed to boost housebuilding by providing local authorities with grant funding for key infrastructure such as transport and utility connections.
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Plans to save Suffolk County Council £11m by restructuring its workforce could result in ‘hundreds of job losses’, Unison has warned.
The council has set out a series of measures aimed at finding nearly £65m in savings over the next two years.
The proposals include reducing staffing costs by £11m by changing the way services are delivered and restructuring across the council, and cutting funding to the art and museum sector by £500,000.
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Somerset Council will have to consider “unprecedented” and “heart-breaking” steps including raising council tax by 10% to bridge a £100m funding gap for the next financial year.
As part of the unitary's budget consultation process it revealed that the executive plans to ask the government for flexibility to increase its council tax by 10%.
Upper tier councils can increase council tax by 2.99% plus 2% for the adult social care precept without holding a referendum. In December LGC's council tax tracker found that most authorities were opting for the maximum increases this year.
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A cut in the main rate of national insurance by two percentage points has been introduced today, from 12 per cent to 10 per cent. The move was announced in last year’s Autumn Statement and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said it means families with two earners are nearly £1,000 better off, but Labour called it a “raw deal” and economists said many households are still facing the burden of high taxes.
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The Government is planning to fund attendance monitors in areas where unauthorised absence rates remain above national levels. It will work in conjunction with a scheme already run by Barnardos children charity which works with 1,600 pupils across 5 areas and will target 15 areas and 3,600 children initially. The Centre for Social Justice thinktank has called for the scheme to be made national to tackle the 140,000 pupils who miss school above 50 percent of the time.
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From the day I started, I have been clear that Oflog will succeed only if it works closely with local government to shape the new organisation together.
I have been very grateful for the constructive engagement from a wide range of colleagues in the sector. There has been much understandable scepticism and suspicion, but I have seen, especially in recent months, increasing numbers of people begin to coalesce around broad agreement to a vision for what Oflog should do. And I think I have perceived a growing level of trust that we really mean it when we say we want to shape Oflog together.
You can imagine, then, my feelings about some of the recent coverage of an interview I did with the Times. It portrayed me – wrongly – as arguing that any financial failure in the sector could be due only to ‘bad management’. This has, quite reasonably, annoyed and alienated colleagues in the sector. I would like to set the record straight.
I told the Times that, in the case of every council currently subject to formal intervention from central government, the need for intervention has been primarily attributable to a failure of governance or management rather than a shortage of money. I do not think that is a controversial view. Indeed, I do not think I have spoken to anybody in the sector who disagrees that each of the recent cases has been principally caused by some failure of leadership, governance, management or organisational culture, rather than simply a lack of funds.
The media coverage then summarised this as me simply blaming ‘bad management’. It also implied that I was commenting on the causes of possible future Section 114 notices or central government interventions – and that any new ‘bankruptcy’ could only be caused by ‘bad management’. That is absolutely not what I said, nor think.
[ more...]
The charity representing library services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has launched a support programme for at-risk services in the wake of proposed budget cuts across the country, including in Denbighshire, Nottingham and Swindon.
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The UK's statistics watchdog is looking into the government's claims to have cleared the asylum backlog.
On Tuesday, the Home Office said it had fulfilled a pledge to clear a "legacy" backlog of 92,000 applications lodged before July 2022.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also tweeted that the government had cleared "the backlog of asylum decisions".
But official figures show a decision had not been reached in 4,537 of those "legacy" cases.
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The Local Government Association (LGA) has announced Surrey CC boss Joanna Killian will be its new chief executive.
Killian has been chief executive at Surrey CC since March 2018. Prior to taking up the pose she held roles as chief executive of Essex CC, Partner at consultancy KPMG, and as local government lead at the Audit Commission.
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Nottingham City Council has urged the Government not to send in commissioners to oversee the running of the authority.
Communities secretary Michael Gove announced last month he was ‘minded to’ extend intervention following Nottingham’s issuing of a section 114 notice.
However, such a move would ‘undermine senior officers’ according to a letter from Cllr Steve Battlemuch, portfolio holder for skills, growth, economic development and property.
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Levels of homelessness in rural areas have increased by 40% over the last five years, research by a countryside charity has revealed.
A report by CPRE found that a greater proportion of people are sleeping rough in the seven worst affected rural local authorities than they are in London, Leeds, or Norwich.
The seven council areas are Bedford, Boston, North Devon, Cornwall, Boston, Bath and Northeast Somerset, Torridge, and Great Yarmouth.
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Derbyshire County Council is planning to move from its headquarters in Matlock to a smaller office in a bid to tackle a £33m overspend.
The council is set to consider several proposals aimed at balancing the books, including changes to care services, residential facilities, and library and heritage services.
[ more...]
Being on the government’s “naughty step” has been stressful for the council at the centre of the four-day week debate, the leader of South Cambridgeshire DC has told LGC.
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Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, spoke to BBC Radio 2 and BBC regional radio news bulletins on the changes coming into effect in April on the number of free hours of childcare working parents can receive. It comes amid warnings from day care providers that they won’t have the resources or qualified staff to manage increased demand. Cllr Gittins said that any additional help from the Government must be targeted to ensure all parents and carers can access the new support.
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Bus services have seen the number of miles driven falling by almost a quarter since 2010. Labour analysis of official figures show buses drove 300 million fewer miles, a fall of over 22 per cent, since 2010 despite being the most popular form of transport and there was also a 4.6 per cent decrease in services in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.
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There is ‘a lot to be done’ to improve management in failing local authorities, the sector watchdog’s chair has said.
Lord Morse, chair of the Office for Local Government (Oflog), said the growing number of councils that have suffered financial collapse is due to mismanagement rather than underfunding.
During an interview with The Times, Lord Morse said: ‘In our view the failures are not attributable to shortage of money, or not primarily attributable to shortage of money - they're to do with failures in management, or failures in governance.’
[ more...]
Local authorities in England are no longer able to charge households to leave small-scale DIY waste at recycling centres in a move aimed at boosting recycling and tacking fly-tipping.
Around a third of councils charged for the disposal of waste, such as plasterboards, bricks, and bath units, at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).
However, residents will now no longer be required to pay any fees for disposing of small-scale DIY waste – a move local authority leaders have cautioned against.
[ more...]
Kerbside collections for broken toasters, hairdryers and other electrical goods could be rolled out across the UK, under plans to crack down on household waste. The LGA has raised concerns that retailers are currently only required to offer recycling services for vaping products if they sell more than £100,000 of electrical items per year.
[ more...]
An opinion piece for the Guardian discusses the financial difficulties councils are currently facing, and the challenges that will come with the next election. The piece references the LGA’s recent survey on the likelihood of councils issuing a section 114 notice in the next two years.
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Costly parking fees are damaging the high street, a FTSE retail chief has warned, amid a tepid turnout to Boxing Day sales.
Gavin Peck, chief executive of stationery and crafts retailer The Works, told The Telegraph that a rise in parking fees had become a “big challenge” for shops as cash-strapped councils hike prices to replace other income streams.
His warning came on what looked like a subdued year for Boxing Day sales. Bargain-hunters queued to get into some shops but others, such as Next and Marks & Spencer, stayed shut.
[ more...]
Council tax is likely to rise across Telford and Wrekin after it was frozen for two years.
Budget proposals for the 2024/25 financial year will be presented to councillors in the new year before public consultation.
Draft papers released last week recommended increasing council tax by 4.99%, meaning the average home in the borough would pay an extra £1.09 per week.
Shaun Davies, Telford and Wrekin Council's Labour leader, said "difficult decisions" were being made due to central government funding.
[ more...]
Town halls forked out £1.7million to 23,000 motorists whose vehicles were damaged by potholes last year. Drivers made 63 compensation claims every day because of decrepit roads, new figures show.
The number of pay-outs rose by six per cent on the previous year.
Surrey County Council dished out the most cash, handing almost £237,000 to successful claimants. And Staffordshire County Council paid out £105,000 as a result of dodgy roads.
Many authorities were forced to make individual payments in the tens of thousands of pounds. Last year, one motorist alone was paid almost £40,000 by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Leeds City Council had a single £36,000 pay-out, while a driver in Kensington and Chelsea, West London, bagged £26,000 according to Freedom of Information data.
[ more...]
Serious concerns have been raised over the growing influence of private equity in the provision of children’s care homes, after an Observer investigation revealed that the number of homes backed by investment companies has more than doubled over five years.
The news comes with children’s social care directors, council leaders and campaigners for those in care accusing some businesses of profiteering from their involvement in children’s social care.
Increasing numbers of councils are warning they face bankruptcy as a result of rising costs. Several care home providers backed by investment companies are also heavily indebted.
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The number of children's homes backed by investment companies has more than doubled over five years, according to an investigation. Close to one in four places in a children’s care home in England now have the involvement of an investment company, up from one in six in 2018. Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said: “Private equity providers are making extremely high profits and carrying concerning levels of debt that risks the stability of homes for children in care, which is paramount if they are to thrive. We continue to call for oversight of the market.”
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Bradford Council has voted to request an urgent government bailout, as an emergency meeting heard the city faces a £73 million overspend this year, which is set to rise to £103 million for the next financial year. Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe told the meeting 87 per cent of this year's total budget was spent on essential children's and adult services. Earlier this month, the LGA warned councils face a “growing financial crisis” with one in five authorities facing running out of money either this year or next.
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The Government has rowed back on plans to raise the salary threshold to bring family members to the UK to £38,700 next spring. The increase from the current level of £18,600 was announced earlier this month as part of a plan to lower legal migration, but the new threshold will initially be set at £29,000, with further increases at unspecified dates thereafter.
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The West Midlands is to become the first UK region to receive new ‘growth zone’ powers, which the combined authority said could generate £1.7bn.
The councils that host the three new growth zones will be able to retain 100% of business rates for 25 years.
The powers were agreed as part of the Government’s ‘deeper devolution’ deal with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
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England has more than twice as many long-term empty homes this Christmas as there are children living in temporary accommodation, the Liberal Democrats have said, calling this a stark indication of a “broken” housing market. The numbers of families without a permanent home and in short-term housing, whether hotels and B&Bs or temporary rental properties, has reached a record high this year, with latest statistics collated by the House of Commons library showing it now affects 121,327 children.
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UK house prices are expected to fall in 2024, according to analysts and lenders, while the cost of renting a home will continue to rise. The Government's official forecaster said property prices were most likely to drop by nearly 5 per cent, although lenders expect less of a fall, while rents on newly-let properties could go up by a further 5-6 per cent, property experts say, following a year of sharp rises.
[ more...]
The Government will introduce a new package of support for first time buyers, it has been reported. Options include longer term fixed-term mortgages and a new version of the Help to Buy scheme.
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Councils across England are having to issue Section 114 notices because of poor financial management and not a lack of money, according to Lord Morse, Chairman of the new Office for Local Government (Oflog). However, Cllr John Fuller, of the LGA’s Resources Board, said growing demand pressures meant many more councils face having to make the same decision. He told MPs last month: “There is a general understanding that, if not this year, next year about half of local authorities will be in [financial] distress.”
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Plans to introduce new laws on nutrient neutrality have been shelved by the Government.
It follows the defeat of an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill in the House of Lords earlier this year.
It is estimated the issue affects the construction of around 100,000 homes up to 2030.
Communities secretary Michael Gove had suggested further legislation would be introduced to tackle the issue of developments being blocked to prevent rising levels of nitrates and phosphates in waterways.
[ more...]
The Supreme Court has ruled that Wolverhampton City Council did not have a duty of care to protect a child from harm from a third party because it could not be established that they had assumed responsibility to protect them.
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Councils are considering asking for their pension contribution rates to be cut amid increasing pressure on municipal budgets and improved pension fund surpluses.
One advisor last month said the Local Government Pension Scheme currently has up to £100bn more than it needs to fund its pension promises, and cutting contribution rates could allow a typical large council to “reasonably save at least £20m a year”.
The LGPS advisory board yesterday issued a statement warning councils against seeking reductions to their employer contributions outside of the usual three-yearly pension fund valuation process, and stressing the desirability of keeping contributions stable.
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The Government’s decision to redirect HS2 funding to fix potholes in London under the Network North plan has been strongly criticised by Northern leaders.
The Government yesterday confirmed allocations for a £235m funding pot aimed at fixing London’s pothole-strewn roads.
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The rate of price rises significantly slowed again in November to another two year low, official figures show. Inflation stood at 3.9 per cent last month, according to the Office for National Statistics, a dramatic fall from the 4.6 per cent recorded a month earlier as price increases slowed in transport, recreation and culture, and food with the biggest downward pressure coming from fuel.
[ more...]
Grant Thornton’s Guy Clifton explains the vital part statutory officers have to play in ensuring councils’ viability in difficult financial times.
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Social care bosses were ‘blindsided’ by ministers’ ban on international staff bringing dependents to the UK and fear an exodus from the sector, an expert has warned.
Speaking to MPs yesterday, Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, made clear his frustration with the government’s decision to ban incoming care staff from bringing dependents – particularly as the NHS has been exempted from the policy.
[ more...]
A struggling county council wants to determine its legal minimum service level across all services to help close a predicted budget gap.
Hampshire CC estimates that it faces a £42m budget deficit in the 2025-26 financial year – even if it meets strict savings targets before then – and wants to fully assess which costs and services it can cut while still meeting its legal obligations.
The move comes amid a snowballing belief the county faces potential government intervention if it cannot improve its financial position. Officials are even preparing for the potential arrival of Government commissioners by applying a ‘commissioner’s test’ to all spending plans. This aims to ensure future commissioners would not be able to identify instances of expenditure not already at minimum service levels.
[ more...]
A fair and funded pay rise for council workers would help to alleviate some of the financial strain on authorities and improve recruitment and retention, a senior union official has said.
[ more...]
Michael Gove has announced the government’s English council funding package for next year, but the sector has warned it will not stop the expected wave of Section 114 notices in the coming months.
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Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has threatened to strip local authorities of their responsibilities for planning if they ‘drag their feet’ when coming up with housing plans.
Councils in England would have three months to put in place plans to meet their housing needs, Mr Gove told The Times. If they failed, they would lose their planning powers to independent planning inspectors.
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Local government leaders have warned about the future of council services following the publication of a “bitterly disappointing” provisional local government finance settlement.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove today published a £64bn funding package which did not give councils the extra funding they have been pleading for.
[ more...]
More than half of the projected increase in core spending power in the provisional local finance settlement comes from increases in council tax.
An LGC analysis of yesterday's settlement for 2024-25 has revealed that 53% of the 6.5% increase in core spending power (CSP) is accounted for by councils increasing tax for their residents.
Authorities with responsibility for adult social care can increase their share of council tax by up to 5% before holding a referendum, while shire districts have a limit of 3% or £5.
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The provisional local government finance settlement for 2024-25 is “much less redistributive” than previous years, with counties set to see the biggest increase in core spending power, an analysis has found.
A report by Adrian Jenkins of Pixel Financial Management about yesterday’s announcement also noted that while the projected increase in core spending power (CSP) is above inflation, “notional real-terms growth is not keeping pace with budget pressures”.
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The local government finance settlement might leave councils in choppy waters next year but the weather will only get heavier afterwards, write a senior research economist and the associate director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
If you had asked us a year ago whether growing numbers of councils would be warning about being able to balance their budgets in 2023-24 and 2024-25 we would have said we wouldn’t be surprised – but to treat those warnings with a pinch of salt.
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Two district councils have been issued with best value notices due to concerns over their levels of debt.
Runnymede and Eastleigh BCs this afternoon received "formal" requests to provide "assurance of improvement" from Suzanne Clarke, deputy director of local government finance at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.
The letter to Andrew Pritchard, chief executive of Runnymede BC, raised concerns over the authority "borrowing 71 times their core spending power" predominantly in property investments and fears over "anticipated income fail" because commercial income is considered a "substantial revenue source".
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CIPFA’s annual library survey, published today, reveals total expenditure on libraries in Great Britain rose 3% to £12,551 per 1,000 people in 2022/23, from £12,143 in 2021/22. This increase in expenditure marks a positive shift in the year-on-year decrease since 2018/19, when total expenditure stood at £12,646 per 1,000 people.
The survey also shows that the income libraries received rose by 3% over the last financial year, which sees some welcome relief to the financial pressure on libraries as high inflation continues to increase their running costs. This is an increase from £916 per 1,000 people in 2021/22 to £939 per 1,000 people in 2022/23.
Following the end of the pandemic, in-person visits to libraries have increased by 71% since 2021/22, from 1,215 per 1,000 people in 2021/22 to 2,082 per 1,000 people in 2022/23. The number of books borrowed has also increased by 24% to 2,316 per 1,000 people, from 1,868 books in 2021/22.
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Communities Secretary, Michael Gove, will today announce a 6.5 per cent increase in funding for local councils in England, as well as a provisional package worth more than £64 billion with extra support for social care and housing, according to multiple government officials, but it will fall short of the help demanded by councils. The article referenced LGA findings that one in five councils said they were likely to issue a Section 114 notice this year or next.
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Max Caller, the commissioner put in charge of supporting Birmingham City Council after it issued a Section 114 notice earlier this year told the BBC it might have to put up council tax by at least 10 per cent. Mr Caller said such an increase was “par for the course” at authorities which had issued a Section 114 notice. A number of other councils, including Nottingham and Woking, have had to do the same, suggesting theirs will also have to rise. The article referenced LGA findings that one in five councils said they were likely to issue a S114 notice this year or next.
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From Jan 1 councils will no longer be able to charge for disposing of waste such as rubble, which the Government has argued will reduce illegal waste-dumping. Cllr Darren Rodwell, environment spokesperson for the LGA, previously warned: “Where councils are no longer able to charge for DIY waste at recycling centres the cost will be passed to all householders, including households that do not have a car and those with no possibility of carrying out building works, for example people living in rented accommodation.”
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The Telegraph has analysed council tax rates versus quality of services provided across all single-tier authorities in England in an attempt to create a league table of local authority performance. Councils deemed to be providing less value for money, according to the Telegraph matrix, have strongly refuted the findings and methodology.
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The LGC council tax tracker has obtained 2024-25 council tax proposals for 59 councils. Of these, 95% are currently planning to implement the highest permitted rise for their authority.
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The government is due to announce the provisional local government finance settlement for 2024-25 this afternoon.
It is expected to confirm the increase in local authorities’ core spending power to £64bn that was set out in this month’s local government finance policy statement.
All local authorities were promised at least a 3% increase in their core spending power, with council tax rises capped at 3% for upper tier authorities, plus 2% for adult social care precept, without holding a referendum.
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Michael Gove today announced England’s provisional local government finance settlement for 2024-25, with councils set to receive an above-inflation average 6.5% increase in funding.
The proposed spending package for next year is £64bn – some £3.9bn more than the current fiscal year - and includes extra support for social care and housing.
Mr Gove’s deal means England’s councils will receive an average funding increase 1.9% above October’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate ‘in recognition of the pressures being faced by local authorities’.
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Councils are to turn to MPs to make the case to the Government following the announcement of an ‘inadequate’ £64bn finance settlement.
Finance spokesperson for the County Councils Network (CCN), Barry Lewis, said they had held ‘several meetings’ with ministers to make the case for emergency funding over recent days, but to no avail.
‘We will now be making our case to county MPs ahead of the parliamentary vote on the final local government settlement to ensure that they are aware of the extent to which highly valued local services will have to be cut next year unless further funding is provided,’ he added.
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Five unitary councils are proposing a devolution deal covering Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.
A ‘non-binding expression of interest’ is expected to be submitted to the Government in February for a level 2 deal including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), Dorset, North Somerset, Somerset and Wiltshire.
Dorset Council’s leader Spencer Flower told a meeting last week that an executive advisory panel will be established to work on the mooted deal.
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Columnist Robert Colvile debates the funding crisis affecting councils, citing the LGA's recent survey on the number who fear they may have to issue a Section 114 notice in the coming years. He says councils are facing growing costs on statutory services, concluding that "in the longer term we need to think very seriously about what we are asking — and legally obliging — councils to do".
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Nearly a million households face council tax rises of up to 15 per cent after two more local authorities announced they were at risk of effective bankruptcy.
Bradford Council and Cheshire East Council, both Labour-run, said on Thursday that they may have to issue a section 114 notice, meaning they are unable to balance their budgets by the end of the financial year.
They join councils including Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking which have already taken the draconian step.
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The many common “causes, symptoms and consequences” of financial failure at local governments can be identified and used to help prevent future problems, according to a new report from Grant Thornton.
Noting that the specific circumstances at struggling authorities have been “unique”, the professional services firm said that repeated causes of failure include poor decisions, often accompanied by a lack of transparency; risky investments made without the necessary commercial skills and knowledge; the lack of an effective top team; over-reliance on interims in key roles; and the failure of members to ask the right questions.
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Hampshire County Council is looking at defining and establishing a legal minimum service level, while exhausting “all options for saving money”.
But doing even this is not expected to achieve the recurring £41.6m of savings needed to balance the authority’s budget in 2025/26.
Instead, the council is aiming to pass the ‘commissioner test’. This, in essence, means that if commissioners were sent in to review Hampshire’s financial position, they should not be able to find any instance of expenditure that was not already at the legal minimum service level.
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The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is hoping a series of market studies will generate information and proposals for improvement to help increase competition in the UK’s audit market for public interest entities (PIE).
A new report providing an updated overview of competition in the space showed that while there was a small increase in market share for challenger audit firms, the audit market remains highly concentrated.
The Big Four accounting firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – continue to dominate, earning 98% of FTSE 350 audit fees in 2022.
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Leicestershire County Council has warned of an £85 million budget shortfall by 2028, which may force the council into its “toughest ever budget”. The council has said that this shortfall has been driven by a £113 million rise in wages precipitated by the new rise in the national living wage, as well as the need to invest a further £127 million in social care due to the rise in demand and in the cost of delivering these services.
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Without "exceptional" government support Bradford MBC will have no choice but to issue a section 114 notice, according to a new council report.
The report, that is going before an extraordinary meeting of the council’s cabinet meeting next Thursday, outlines how reserves will be "exhausted" by the end of this financial year so "exceptional" financial support "will be required" to keep their budget balanced or the next two financial years .
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An allowance for kinship carers will be trialled in up to eight local authorities next year as part of a £20m national kinship strategy, the government has announced today.
The strategy, along with an extra £36m to improve recruitment and retention in children’s social care and extra foster care funding, form part of the government’s response to the MacAlister independent review of social care.
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Cheshire East Council has warned that it may have to issue a section 114 notice after spending £11m preparing for HS2, as it continues to press for compensation.
The local authority described the cancellation of the HS2 scheme north of Birmingham as a ‘devastating blow’ for the region.
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A lack of auditor capacity and complex accounting requirements worsened the local audit crisis and meant the Financial Reporting Council could only inspect four financial statements in 2022-23.
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This publication provides guidance on IFRS 16 Leases for 2022/23, which is applicable to those authorities deciding to voluntarily implement the requirements of Appendix F of the Code (which includes the specifications applicable to those entities implementing IFRS 16 as of 1 April 2022). It will also be of interest to those intending to apply as of 1 April 2023 and those mandatorily implementing as of 1 April 2024.
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Conservative ministers were today urged to “grasp the nettle” and pay carers a decent wage as fears the latest Conservative plan to cut net migration will further exacerbate social care workforce shortages. Former LGA vice-president, Lib Dem Lord John Shipley, said: “Local authorities are seriously underfunded for adult and children's social care and are cutting other public services as a consequence.”
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The Association for Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has announced that Anna Hemmings has been appointed as its new joint chief executive.
She will work alongside Cathie Williams in the role early in the New Year.
Ms Hemmings said: ‘Having worked with people who draw on social care throughout my career, I’m delighted to be joining ADASS as joint CEO at this important time.
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A Government minister has admitted around three quarters of council budgets are now being spent on adult social care and this was ‘not a good situation’.
Asked by Lord Forsyth of Drumlean during parliamentary questions what percentage of councils’ expenditure was now being spent on social care, health and social care minister Lord Markham said local authorities were on average spending around 74-75% on the function.
The minister added: ‘I think that we would all agree that is not a good situation because obviously a local authority has got a number of matters it needs to deal with. I think those are part of the issues around long-term reform that we will need to consider.’
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A specialist school has billed a Leeds City Council almost £2.5 million for the education of a single child with special needs. The placement spanned several years and included accommodation on-site. The LGA has warned of increased costs for children’s placements and rising profits for providers. Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA's Children and Young People’s Board: "Councils continue to face significant challenges managing the ever-increasing rise in demand for support from children with SEND. To help alleviate the huge strain they are under, we are calling on the Government to use the upcoming local government financial settlement to eliminate councils’ high needs deficits, which have arisen as a result of the spiralling costs of providing support outstripping the SEND budgets available to councils."
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The Government is due to relax housing targets for local authorities in England, reports suggest. The changes are expected to allow authorities to allocate less land to future development if local officials can argue that more development would damage the character of an area or require building on greenbelt land.
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Nearly 40,000 more people than last year are expected to spend this Christmas homeless, the charity Shelter HAS warned. IT IS predicting a 14 per cent increase in people spending the festive season in hotels, B&Bs and other temporary accommodation.
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Economists are predicting the Bank of England to freeze interest rates later today. The figure was held at 5.25 per cent for the second consecutive time last month.
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The UK economy shrank by more than expected in October, as higher interest rates squeezed consumers and bad weather swept the country.
The economy fell 0.3% during the month, after growth of 0.2% in September.
Household spending has been dented by rate rises as the Bank of England tries to tackle inflation. It is due to make its next rate decision on Thursday.
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New analysis by Queen’s University in Belfast has revealed over a million people in England are living in pockets of hidden hardship, meaning people could be missing out on vital help because their poverty is masked by neighbours who are better off.
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A new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests secondary schools with the most disadvantaged pupils have been hit hardest by funding cuts. It found rising costs are placing increasing pressure on all areas of education.
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London’s councils are facing a collective deficit of over half a billion pounds, research has found. The figures suggest that council tax across the capital will have to increase further to meet these growing deficits. The LGA recently warned councils across England faced a £4 billion funding gap over the next two years.
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Durham County Council has asked the Government to repay the £1.2 million costs of its failed levelling up bids. The council took action after five of its bids were unsuccessful during the funding process.
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As well as paving the way for more devolution, the levelling up act will mean significant changes for the planning system, but not all will come into force straight away. LGC pulls out the key points for local government.
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The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, has conceded that “local government faces significant funding pressures” in comments made to the Levelling Up Committee. However, Mr Gove has also claimed there is a link between “poor leadership” and the subsequent Section 114 notice at those councils that have issued it. These comments have been made despite grants to local authorities falling by 40 percent in the last 10 years, according to the Institute for Government. The LGA has warned in a recent survey that one in five Council leaders and Chief executives are very or fairly likely to have to issue a section 114 notice by the end of next year.
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There are fears that further reductions in spending by councils to ensure that budgets are balanced will hit the most vulnerable. Newcastle City Council has reported plans to save £15.4 million by the end of 2024 by halving the money spent on homelessness, closing its crisis support service and reviewing free home to school transport for special educational needs and disabilities students over the age of 16. The council said these measures are due to a lack of funding from government, as well as increased demand and inflation. The LGA has warned that councils across England face a funding gap of £4 billion over the next two years.
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The number of child cruelty and neglect cases has more than doubled in the past five years, police data collected by the NSPCC shows.
The data from police forces in England shows there were 29,405 offences between April 2022 and March 2023 compared to 14,263 offences between April 2017 and March 2018.
The figures, obtained by the NSPCC children's charity by using the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the number of cases increased steadily year on year during that period.
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New Workplace Recycling Regulations have been passed in Wales, which will require all businesses to separate recyclable materials.
The new law, which will come into force on 6 April next year, means all businesses, charities and public sector organisations will have to separate key recyclable materials for collection.
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Owners of long-term empty properties in Lewes are set to be hit by council tax premiums of up to 300% from April 2024.
Cabinet councillors yesterday recommended the increase to tackle the ‘scandalous’ situation of homes sitting empty while there is a shortage of houses.
Subject to approval by Full Council, the premiums would begin at 100% for homes that are unoccupied and substantially unfurnished between one and five years of becoming empty. They would then rise to 200% for between five and 10 years, and 300% for more than 10 years of becoming empty.
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Increasing the local housing allowance will not cover the loss of a council fund designed to help those struggling with the cost of living crisis, sector leaders have warned.
As part of the Autumn Statement, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that housing benefits for private renters will be increased to the 30th percentile of local market rates, but papers appeared to suggest that in return the household support fund (HSF) would not be extended.
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Children’s services directors are in an “exceptionally difficult” position where they have to “make the case” for funding to finance colleagues, John Pearce told LGC.
In an interview last week, the president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), said that being a “key pressure” during financial crisis makes it harder to “make the case” for funding preventative services.
Mr Pearce warned that staff were increasingly at risk of burnout due the way they are being asked to work, and called for better regulation of the “Wild West” private provider market.
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Birmingham City Council, which is currently under government intervention, is set to consider selling assets within its £2.4bn property portfolio to help address its £300m budget gap over the next two years.
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Section 114 notices are the last resort for local authorities in financial trouble. Once rare, there have been several high-profile examples since 2018, with councils of different sizes and located across the country sending out a distress signal over their financial position. Although each situation is unique, there are some common trends and themes around financial management and governance issues, which will be explored in this report. By looking at what went wrong, we can identify preventative actions that will help improve and maintain resilience across the sector.
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A metropolitan borough has become the latest to warn of financial distress due to care demand.
Low reserves and the lack of capacity are key risks to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council balancing its budget with “urgent action” needed to avoid a Section 114 notice, local leaders have said.
[ more...]
Almost a fifth (18%) of council leaders and chief executives could be forced to issue the statutory notice either this year or next year, according to new figures from the Local Government Association.
A survey, based on responses from 114 chief executives and 71 council leaders, said around half (54%) were not very confident of funding statutory services up to the end of 2024-25.
Almost two-thirds of respondents (63%) said there was nothing in the Autumn Statement that would help them deal with their financial position.
The County Councils Network (CCN) is also warning that councils are in a ‘significantly worse financial position’ after the Autumn Statement, with seven in 10 county councils now unsure if they can balance their budget next year according to its own survey.
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Local authorities’ core spending power will increase by £4bn to £64bn next year but the sector should not expect any major reforms, the local government finance policy statement published this afternoon has said.
The document, published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, says the revenue support grant will be increased in line with consumer price index inflation, but the government has not confirmed which month’s figures it will use. October’s figure is 4.6%, while September’s is 6.7%, according to the Office for National Statistics. LGC has asked DLUHC for clarification.
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The government has pledged to "work closely with councils to increase transparency around the costs of residential placements for children" in the local government finance policy statement.
The commitment follows warnings from councils about the spiralling cost of placements for some vulnerable children putting huge pressure on council budgets.
The statement said the work to increase transparency is set to be a "precursor" to the launch of Regional Care Cooperatives, designed to bring together local authorities to commission fostering and residential care for children.
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Representation from local authorities, including on council tax provision, will be considered the government has announced today as part of the local government finance policy statement.
The statement sets out the government’s intentions ahead of the full details of the local government finance settlement for 2024-25 , which is expected to be announced later this month.
Since 2020 the government has agreed to provide a small number of local authorities with additional resources via the Exceptional Financial Support Framework, following requests from these councils for assistance to manage financial pressures that they considered unmanageable.
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The Local Government Association has long called for councils to retain 100% of Right to Buy receipts, and Treasury permission to combine receipts with other government grants.
But a meeting of the LGA’s local infrastructure and net zero board on 23 November was asked to consider further lobbying positions – including extending the five-year time limit in which receipts must be spent and altering the current cap on acquisitions.
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A metropolitan borough has become the latest to warn of financial distress due to care demand.
Low reserves and the lack of capacity are key risks to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council balancing its budget with “urgent action” needed to avoid a Section 114 notice, local leaders have said.
The council is facing a “serious financial challenge” due to rising care demands and shortfall in commercial income, which could lead to the further use of already low reserves, an LGA corporate peer challenge said.
Local leaders said current forecasts indicate there could be just £3m in the general fund reserve at the end of this year with cost pressures set to rise.
[ more...]
The local government finance policy statement provides “nothing to address the general situation” facing council finances, making it “difficult” to see how all authorities will balance their budgets, sector professionals have said.
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Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has stated that Nottingham City Council’s issuance of a section 114 notice (s114) was not caused by a lack of central government funding despite its spending power decreasing by 28% since 2010/11.
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An article explores the financial challenges faced by councils, after Nottingham City Council issued a section 114 notice last week. The LGA has warned councils in England face a funding gap of £4 billion over the next two years. Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the LGA, said: “This is just the start of a massive upward trend. I know from speaking to a lot of cross-party councils and councillors that there is not a single one of them that can look past the next three years without falling off a cliff (financially).”
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Communities Secretary Michael Gove has said councils would have little hope of seeing spending pressures relieved under Labour. Mr Gove suggested Labour MPs would be “raising false hopes” if they suggested a victory for their party at the next general election would mean extra funding for councils. Meanwhile local government minister Simon Hoare told the Commons he would not name councils in financial trouble. He said: “I have said to the LGA and to the others that I don’t think it’s right for us to name and shame.”
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Care companies fear the announcement overseas care workers will no longer be able to bring their families will put potential recruits off moving to the UK. Home Office figures indicate nearly 144,000 care workers, who arrived in the UK in the year up to September 2023, brought almost 174,000 family members with them.
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Council tax on second homes in Bath is set to double as the local authority seeks to tackle the local housing shortage.
According to Bath and North East Somerset Council, the increase will come into force from April 2025 and will apply to furnished homes that are only periodically occupied.
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More than 11,000 autistic adults in England are not receiving the care they are legally entitled to, a group of autism charities has found.
Autism Alliance said it means the Care Act 2014, which states that eligible adults must receive support, ‘is being broken daily’.
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Croydon Council has disposed of over £72m of assets since 2021, with a further £52m expected to be sold by the end of the financial year.
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Dozens more councils will learn within weeks whether they will need to issue a Section 114 notice restricting their spending, due to the impact of inflation and a lack of funding. The Government will this month set out its proposed councils funding plan for next year, which MPs will vote through before Christmas. Cllr Pete Marland, Chair of the LGA’s Resources Board, said: “Councils are being faced with tough decisions about cutting valued services, increasing council tax and fees and charges during a cost-of-living crisis.
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To build more homes, councils don’t need false limits and a Kafkaesque sting set by central government, writes Cllr Diarmaid Ward, Islington Council’s deputy leader.
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Thousands of nurseries have shut their doors amid a staffing crisis, leaving the Chancellor’s flagship Budget pledge to expand free childcare for British families “doomed to failure”, according to the chief executive of the Early Years Alliance. New figures from school inspectors Ofsted show that 3,320 of the 62,300 nurseries and childminders for under-fives in England have shut their doors in the past year alone, leaving 17,800 fewer childcare places available.
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Workforces are “vulnerable” during government social care pilots, which can make it harder to recruit and retain staff, trial local authorities have reported.
Dorset Council, Lincolnshire CC and Wolverhampton City Council shared their findings from the first wave of the Families First for Children (FFC) pathfinder at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) last week raising concerns about its progress.
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Norfolk CC’s cabinet unanimously agreed to accept the level three devolution deal, but with a one year delay, at a meeting this morning.
Delaying the deal means elections for the new directly elected leader will take place at the same time as the county’s elections in May 2025. This is expected to save money and lead to higher turnout.
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Following the National Children’s and Adult’s Service Conference in Bournemouth last week, The MJ rounds up everything you need to know.
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Only last month the County Councils’ Network (CCN) highlighted that children’s services make up almost half of its members’ overspends this year, driven by demand and costs, particularly placement costs which have spiralled as the number of children in care reaches record levels.
Yet measures in the Government’s strategy to tackle this, such as Regional Care Co-operatives, have struggled to gain support – even for pilots – as councils fear surrendering autonomy over placement commissioning may leave them even more exposed to bureaucracy and expense in this key area of spending concern.
However, the need to regain control of the market is real and for many councils that means looking at different ways of providing and commissioning care. During the last decade a group of county councils came to this conclusion, recognising the cost of care placements needed to be more connected to a child’s identified needs.
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Nottingham has become the latest council to issue a section 114 notice as inflation and growing demands for services have pushed up to half of all local authorities to “breaking point”. Cllr John Fuller, Vice Chair of the LGA’s Resources Board, recently told MPs: “There is a general understanding that if not this year, next year, about half of the authorities will be in distress.”
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The UK Government's proposed ban on the sale of new leasehold houses has not been included in its bill to reform housing rights. Ministers had said this week's new bill would ban the sale of new leasehold houses in England and Wales but the Government says the ban will be added to the bill at a later stage in its passage through Parliament
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A ‘lack of clarity’ around the Government’s recycling reforms are preventing councils from preparing for the upcoming changes, according to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
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Birmingham City Council's leader has accused the Government of 'betrayal' by axing the authority's £2.7bn highways Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, in a move that could lose the authority more than £500m of roads investment.
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Senior Local Government Association (LGA) figures are pushing the organisation to beef up its peer review offer to help neutralise the threat from Oflog.
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Havering LBC is to apply for a capitalisation direction as it bids to avoid issuing a section 114 notice next year.
Despite making savings, reining in spending and factoring in a maximum increase in council tax, the council still faces a gap in its budget for the next financial year.
A surge in demand for temporary housing and children’s services are the chief financial pressures facing Havering, which has imposed spending controls ‘until further notice’.
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Rising service demands and a “completely broken” funding model could force more councils to declare that they cannot balance this year's budget, sector figures have said following Nottingham City Council's section 114 notice yesterday.
The council’s 151 officer issued the notice yesterday citing a general fund pressure of £57m.
A report to the council’s executive board on 21 November revealed an in-year overspend of £23.3m, against a revenue budget of £261.8m.
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Cuts to local government contribute to a sense of political abandonment that may drive extremism, writes the director of LSE London.
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A proposed real-terms cut to capital budgets risks exacerbating school maintenance backlogs and shows the government does “not care about the state of school buildings”, a union leader has said.
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Following an extensive two-day interview process earlier this month, Nina Philippidis has been appointed deputy chief executive and executive director of corporate resources at Gloucestershire County Council.
As well as being the council's statutory finance officer, Nina will lead a range of other corporate services such as Property, ICT, Communications, and HR.
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The LGA is warning of the spiralling costs of providing support for children with the most complex needs. Its survey of councils reveals the number of placements costing more than £10,000 per week has risen from 120 in 2018 to more than 1,500 in the past year, while the proportion of councils taking these out has increased from 23 per cent to 91 per cent over the same period . The highest cost placement was £63,000 a week and for most councils, the highest cost fell between £9,600 and £32,500 a week. The LGA’s survey comes as the annual National Children and Adult Services Conference gets underway today in Bournemouth.
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All but two Yorkshire councils are set to spend beyond their budgets this year as BBC analysis shows they have lost £945 million in government funding since 2015. The region's 13 major local authorities face a combined overspend of nearly £193 million in 2023/24, with the spiralling cost of social care using up one in every three pounds in their budgets. All of the Yorkshire councils have lost at least a third of their central government funding since 2015/16, the last year for which comparable figures are available, the analysis found. The LGA said it was "hugely disappointed" Chancellor Jeremy Hunt did not announce funding for councils in last week’s Autumn Statement and said local authorities had been "pushed to the brink" by the rising costs of social care.
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The Government is to invest £400 million in its plans to expand free childcare for working parents in England from April. The Department for Education has also announced an increase in funding rates for nursery places, with hourly rates available to providers increasing to £11.22 for under-twos, £8.28 for two-year-olds, and £5.88 for three and four-year-olds.
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Sector leaders must “pool forces” to convince policymakers that social care is a “core” public service, urges the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.
Beverley Tarka told the national children and adult services conference (NCASC) this morning that the sector has been “too fragmented” to secure necessary improvements to funding and social care services.
This comes a week after chancellor’s Autumn Statement, which did not deliver additional funds for adult social care or children’s services.
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There has been a 1,000% rise over five years in the number of children’s social care placements that cost councils £10,000 or more a week, the Local Government Association (LGA) has found.
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Nottingham has become the latest council to effectively declare itself bankrupt as inflation and growing demands for services have pushed up to half of all local authorities to “breaking point”.
The Labour-run council said it was set for a £23 million overspend in its budget this year when councils are legally required to balance their books.
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Research has found bus services have been cut by more than 80 per cent in the past 15 years in some parts of England and Wales. The study by the University of Leeds, in conjunction with the charity Friends of the Earth, found outside London, bus services plummeted by more than 60 per cent in 80 local authority areas.
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Analysis by the estate and lettings agent Savills has found average private rents in Great Britain have soared by more than a quarter since the start of the Covid pandemic and will keep rising.
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Any incoming administration must prioritise making this a country that works for all children, writes the vice president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services.
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Norfolk CC may delay implementing its devolution deal by one year until May 2025 to bring elections for a directly elected leader in line with county council elections, after negotiating timing flexibility from government.
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MPs have called for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to outline the degree of independence the Office for Local Government (Oflog) will have.
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The Government should show more urgency in tackling the local audit crisis, a committee of MPs has said.
A report by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee published today concluded the system was ‘currently in an unacceptable crisis’ with backlogs of accounts stretching back up to seven years.
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Health and care systems lack a shared understanding of the causes of hospital discharge delays and short-term Government funding fails to address this.
These are the findings of a report by The King’s Fund charity looking at the impact of last winter’s £750m investment by Whitehall in addressing the issue of hospital bed blocking.
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Former Oldham MBC leader Jim McMahon has returned to the opposition frontbench as shadow devolution and local government minister.
He joins shadow communities secretary and deputy leader Angela Rayner’s team, alongside Liz Twist as local services and communities minister and Maeve Sherlock as faith minister.
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MPs have warned key services are on a ‘knife edge’ due to the poor financial health of councils in England.
Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Clive Betts, has written to local government secretary Michael Gove to highlight the funding pressures councils are under when it comes to the provision of services such as social care, children’s services and homelessness.
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Councils have welcomed chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s decision to extend preferential Public Works Loan Board borrowing rates for Housing Revenue Account (HRA) expenditure.
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Greater central government support is “clearly required” for local authorities, a parliamentary committee has told secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities Michael Gove.
Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee, has written to Gove to highlight concerns over the financial health of councils in England that were heard in recent evidence sessions.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been warned a lack of additional funding for Local Government in this week’s Autumn Statement will trigger a fire sale of public assets, reduce councils to an emergency service and put the vulnerable at greater risk. Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the LGA said, there could be a big increase in the number of councils in financial distress. “Any suggestion of any further cuts on top of the current deficit we face and we’ll see the number of councils set to go bankrupt rise from one in 10 to a significantly higher number. My concern is that there is a wave of councils that will effectively return the town hall keys back to the government because there is just no way out of this.”
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A return to “austerity” is about to hit a huge range of public services from courts and social care, swimming pools, libraries and roads; with more councils facing bankruptcy, ministers are being warned. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s failure to boost public spending in the Autumn Statement will push some Government departments back to the last decade, experts say. Cllr Peter Marland, Chair of the LGA's Resources Board, said: “Councils end up cutting back right to the bare bone and the public end up saying ‘what are we paying our money for?’ Meanwhile council tax will have to go up so people are paying more for less.”
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The AA have responded to 52,541 callouts in October for vehicles damaged by road defects. This is a 12 per cent increase compared with the same month last year, and is slightly ahead of the previous October high of 52,152 set in 2017. Cllr Darren Rodwell, Transport spokesperson for the LGA said: “Investing in cost-effective and resilient roads resurfacing, rather than retrospectively dealing with potholes, is a priority for councils. The recently announced extra £8.3 billion of funding will help with bringing more of our local road network up to scratch. Longer term, the Government should award council highways departments with five-yearly funding allocations to give more certainty, bringing councils on a par with National Highways so they can develop resurfacing programmes and other highways improvements, tackling the scourge of potholes.”
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Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said he is confident a bill reforming the leasehold system in England and Wales will pass by the next general election. The Bill would make it easier and cheaper for homeowners to extend their lease or buy their freehold.
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The government has only met its target to show debt will fall by “pretending” certain measures, including the fuel duty freeze, will end this year, economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies have said.
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The latest analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has predicted that local authorities will have to draw down £2.3bn of reserves over the next two years, compared to previous assumptions of no drawdown.
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In the wake of chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement, section 151 officers and chief executives have reflected on what was an ‘unhelpful’ and ‘extremely disappointing’ financial update.
In his statement, Hunt chose to prioritise boosting business investment and cutting tax instead of increasing funding for public services, vowing to “reject big government, high spending and high tax because we know that leads to less growth, not more”.
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The LGA’s warnings of a funding gap for council services over the next two years have been referenced in an article on the effect that tax cuts announced in the Autumn Statement will have on public spending. Public spending will drop by £20 billion a year by the end of the next parliamentary period at the current rate, it is reported, placing pressure on councils who are dealing with unbalanced budgets and an increased demand for services to cut non statutory services to maintain underfunded services, like adult social care. LGA Economy and Resources Board Chair Cllr Peter Marland also featured in iNews, who said that many councils had “shaved” around their services and “will not be able to deliver their statutory obligations”.
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A former care home could be converted into temporary accommodation for people who are homeless. Great Yarmouth Borough Council is applying for planning permission to use 20 of the rooms for up to three years as temporary accommodation. In October, LGA analysis found that £1.74 billion was spent by local councils in 2022/23 on provide temporary housing.
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The welfare cap, a non-binding limit on tax credits and selected social security, has been breached for the fourth time since its introduction in 2013. The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast an overspend of £8.6 billion in 2024/25.
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Local government figures warned that today's Autumn Statement does not do enough to address funding pressures facing councils.
Throughout the day local government experts have told the LGC how even with "positive steps" such as devolution deals, investment zones and the decision to unfreeze local housing allowance rates, their concerns have not been addressed.
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The end of the household support fund "leaves a major hole" that councils and charities will not be able to fill, anti-poverty charities have warned after the Autumn Statement.
The fund was first launched in October 2021 by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) with £500m and has been extended three times. Between the launch and March 2024 £2.5bn has been made available through the fund.
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Surrey CC has announced that it is negotiating a level two county deal with the government, after the chancellor announced plans to extend devolution in two-tier areas.
These deals are being offered to single council areas that do not have a neighbouring or island unitary to form a combined authority with. Level two deals do not require a governance change or directly elected mayor or leader.
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The Lancashire devolution announcement in the Autumn Statement is ‘amazing news for county’, local authority leaders in the region have said.
The announcement to offer the deal to create a Lancashire Combined County Authority. was made by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt as part of yesterday’s Autumn Statement.
Leaders from Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council and Blackpool Council have been working to progress a devolution deal over the past six months.
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More support for private renters, devolution and local planning departments is welcome but cash-strapped councils remain ‘chronically underfunded’, council chiefs say in response to the Autumn Statement.
Cllr Shaun Davies, chair of the Local Government Association (LGA), welcomed the Chancellor’s decision to unfreeze Local Housing Allowance rates and allow councils to recover planning costs.
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The chancellor’s decision to go ahead with plans to pressure the Local Government Pension Scheme to invest 10% of its assets in private equity came despite overwhelming opposition from the sector, the results of the government's own consultation have shown.
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The chancellor has unfrozen housing benefits and announced positive devolution news in his Autumn Statement, but signaled tighter public spending despite raising the National Living Wage.
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More powers will be offered to areas with a level 3 devolution deal, the Government has announced as part of the Autumn Statement.
A framework for ‘level 4’ deals has been published, which will allow combined authorities with elected mayors to apply for devolved powers over adult skills, local transport and housing on a par with the trailblazer deals in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
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Councils will be able to recover the costs of business planning applications in return for being required to meet faster timelines, the Chancellor said in the autumn statement.
Mr Hunt also confirmed people living near new pylons and electricity substations will receive up to £10,000 off energy bills over a decade.
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Housing benefits for private renters are set to increase as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirms the uprating of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates in the autumn statement.
LHA rates, which determine the level of housing support people receive for rent, have been frozen in cash terms since 2020 despite high inflation and rising rental prices.
Rent can represent more than half the living costs of private renters on the lowest incomes, the Chancellor said.
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So-called ‘unprotected’ Whitehall departments face further budget tightening despite a pledge in the Autumn Statement to increase public sector productivity.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s fiscal outlook published today says ‘it is mainly due to the Chancellor’s decision to leave departmental spending broadly unchanged’ that borrowing is reduced by £27bn in 2027/28 compared to its March forecast.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has confirmed the biggest-ever hike in the UK minimum wage – but the move places strained council finances under fresh pressure.
As expected, Mr Hunt announced that the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by £1.02 in April 2024: from £10.42 per hour for over 23-year-olds to £11.44. The new rate will also apply to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time.
Mr Hunt said the new rate was worth an extra £1,800 per year to the UK’s lowest-paid workers.
But while the increase will provide a much-needed boost to public sector personnel at the lower end of wage spines – such as social care staff – the move will increase many councils’ pay bills considerably during continued sector austerity.
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Plans to extend business rates relief will be fully funded for local authorities, the small print of the Autumn Statement has confirmed.
Chancellor Jeremey Hunt extended business rate relief further, following on from moves instigated during the pandemic, when he announced his plans to Parliament today.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced a surprise target to ensure all Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds are invested in asset pools of £200bn or more by 2040.
The ambitious target goes well beyond ongoing reforms to LGPS guidance on pooling first revealed in the chancellor’s Mansion House speech earlier this year – which requires that all LGPS asset pools reach a minimum of £50bn by 2025.
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Pressure is mounting on the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to cut taxes in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement. It comes as figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation show almost 4 million workers are to pay income tax by the middle of the decade.
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Levelling up secretary Michael Gove hinted Christmas may come early for councils when chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveils his autumn statement this week.
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Britain currently has the ‘highest tax raising parliament in history’, a leading economist has pointed out.
Despite huge levels of taxation, and increased investment in public services, there is still not enough funding to undo a decade of austerity.
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The chancellor has received mixed news on the economy the day before the autumn statement, with official figures showing record borrowing last month and higher interest payments offset by better-than-expected tax revenues.
Borrowing in October was £14.9bn pushed up by benefit payments, the second highest October borrowing since monthly records began in 1993 – only beaten by October 2020 during the pandemic.
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The government is not conducting a formal review of council tax, the new local government minister has said.
Last November levelling up secretary Michael Gove told the Commons levelling up, housing & communities committee he had asked then local government minister Lee Rowley to look at the council tax system.
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South Cambridgeshire DC will continue its four-day working week trial after agreeing to answer up to 80 questions, totalling 186 individual data requests, from the government every week.
At an extraordinary council meeting yesterday, councillors voted to agree to provide the data requested by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) every week for the next six months. This covers staffing, costs, service delivery, performance and resident feedback.
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Current provisions for home to school transport need to be “revisited,” levelling up secretary Michael Gove has said.
Speaking at the County Councils Network conference on Monday, Mr Gove said he understood the pressures facing councils in adult and children’s social care as well as services for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities, and revealed he was looking to "secure more resources".
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Not giving councils additional funding in the Autumn Statement could lead to numerous authorities issuing Section 114 notices, and could damage the government close to a general election, a senior councillor has told PF.
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Councils are likely to receive an above-inflation funding settlement for 2024-25, a senior civil servant has said amid sector-wide concerns over resources.
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Household energy prices will rise in January putting more financial pressure on billpayers. Energy regulator Ofgem said the typical annual household bill would go up from £1,834 to £1,928, a rise of £94 or 5 per cent.
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The third round of the Levelling Up Fund has been awarded to unsuccessful bids from round two.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said the aim was to ‘move away from the competitive approach’ of the first two rounds, in response to criticism from the sector, and in line with the department’s approach of simplifying funding.
It also acknowledged ‘the large volume of robustly assessed, high-quality projects that were not able to be funded in the second round’.
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The Government is facing calls to provide emergency funding for children’s social care in this week’s Autumn Statement.
The Local Government Association (LGA) and 28 other charities and campaigners including the NSPCC and Barnardo’s have made the case in a joint open letter to chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
The letter warns of a ‘perfect storm’ of financial pressures and increasing demand that have seen social care budgets increase by £1.5bn in the last year alone.
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Thousands of children are learning in potentially unsafe buildings, with MPs ‘extremely concerned’ about the Department for Education’s understanding of the risks, a new report says.
In its report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that 700,000 children are learning in schools that need major rebuilding or refurbishment.
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Oldham MBC and Oxfordshire CC have received improvement notices for their services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
They follow inspections by the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted that uncovered ‘widespread failings’ at Oldham in August and a sense of ‘helplessness’ among families at Oxfordshire in September.
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A ‘perfect storm’ of financial pressures and rising numbers of children needing support are putting more local authorities at risk of bankruptcy, council leaders have warned.
Ahead of the Autumn Statement on Wednesday, the Local Government Association (LGA) has joined with charities and other organisations in calling on the Chancellor to provide the funding children’s social care ‘desperately needs…before it is pushed to the brink’.
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The government launched the UK’s third investment zone in West Yorkshire today, to potentially "unlock" up to £220m of private investment.
The hope is that this opportunity for stamp duty, business rates and national insurance contributions relief would enable the region to create more than 2,500 new jobs over the next five years.
This zone, the third to be announced out of twelve, will be focused on Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds as hosts of universities and life sciences businesses.
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Dire overspends mean controversial measures have to be considered, writes the children’s services spokesperson for the County Councils Network and leader of Kent CC.
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Eyes will be on chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Treasury this week as the Autumn Statement is due to take place on Wednesday, chief reporter Caitlin Webb looks at what could be in store for local government.
While the appearance of the chancellor at the dispatch box comes as no surprise, the funding allocations are not as predictable.
This year is no different and council leaders are even holding back on signing off devolution deals in anticipation of the statement
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Cycling campaigners have called on the Government to go further than its £8.3 billion increase in funding for local road repairs in light of recent accidents. Cllr Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the LGA said that the funding was important but "it's not the £14 billion it is estimated we need" to bring local roads up to scratch.
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Reports suggested that households living close to new pylons and electricity substations could receive up to £1,000 a year off energy bills for a decade under new plans to be announced at the Autumn Statement. The plans will also include changes to the planning system to speed up the building of new pylons.
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The Government is considering cutting either National Insurance or income tax in the Autumn Statement, it has been reported. The move is due to improved public finances and better than expected inflation forecasts.
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Proposed government reforms to leaseholds could increase the value of homes with short leases by 9.9 per cent on average, according to analysis published by property consultancy Knight Frank and Bayes Business School. Reforms set out in the King’s Speech on November 7 would give leaseholders the right to extend the lease to 990 years.
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Nursery and childminder places are becoming harder to find for parents because of the plan to expand government-funded childcare hours for working parents in England over the next two years, analysis by the BBC has suggested. Estimates show that demand is likely to rise by about 15 per cent - equivalent to more than 100,000 additional children in full-time care. The LGA has warned that provision was already challenging particularly in more deprived and rural areas. Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People’s Board said: “We can't control new providers coming into areas that already have sufficient provision. And then other areas not having enough provision will create a system of inequality - and parents will be disappointed."
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There have been warnings that a number of councils will raise council tax to the 5 per cent limit when they set their budgets at the beginning of next year. Cllr Pete Marland, Chair of the LGA’s Resources Board said: “Severe funding and demand pressures mean that council finances are under pressure like never before. Some councils have warned of being unable to meet their legal duty to set a balanced budget and are close to issuing Section 114 notices.”
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North Northamptonshire Council has warned of a £17 million funding gap due to a rise in demand for services and historic reductions to local budgets. Analysis by the LGA has shown there to be a £4 billion funding gap facing councils over the next two years unless this is address as part of the Government’s Autumn Statement.
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A report by the County Councils Network has found that councils are spending nearly double on special needs transport compared to five years ago. Their report found that councils are spending more than £700 million a year on school transport for 85,000 children with special education needs and disabilities compared with less than £400 million five years ago.
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Norfolk CC is waiting for the government to confirm what new devolution arrangements may be available before the county makes any decision about proceeding with the current deal it has on the table.
At a meeting this morning council leader Kay Mason Billig (Con) told members that the government has been “hinting about all sorts of things” ahead of the Autumn Statement, which may affect Norfolk’s options.
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The Department for Education has published statistics showing the number of unaccompanied child asylum seekers has risen by 29 percent from this time last year. An LGA spokesperson said the figures show “how vital it is that next week's Autumn Statement ensures that children's services are adequately funded so councils can meet this rising demand and ensure children and their families get the support they need, as soon as they need it".
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Derbyshire County Council said ‘serious challenges’ lie ahead despite its progress in tackling its financial shortfall.
A report released in September had forecast £46.4m overspend for the current year.
The latest report, due to be considered by the cabinet on 23 November, says the overspend has been reduced to £33m through measures including the use of reserves, freezing all but essential recruitment, reducing overtime and the use of agency staff, and only carrying out health and safety repairs on properties.
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Transport secretary Mark Harper has confirmed the allocations of an £8.3bn plan to resurface England’s pothole-marked road system, set out in the wake of HS2 cuts.
Under the Network North plan, local highway authorities will receive £150m this financial year, followed by a further £150m for 2024/2025. The remaining funds will be allocated through to 2034.
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Inflation and government delay will probably mean many levelling up projects miss their deadlines, the National Audit Office warned.
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New government ministers have been urged to make the council funding crisis a top priority.
Leading experts had warned action is needed to plug the gap in budgets and find funding for the long-term to offset the huge rise in inflation.
The drop in the rate in inflation announced in official figures today should not be seen by Whitehall as a fix in itself, ministers were warned. Councils will still be grappling with costs for projects that have increased with no extra funding to counter it.
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Thousands of people who need support at home face an increased risk of poor care because of low fees paid by the NHS and councils, care companies say.
Only one UK public authority in 20 pays enough to fund the minimum wage and other staff costs, research suggests.
This means some companies struggle to find enough staff to support people with complex needs, while others face going under.
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Nearly a quarter of a million people in England were waiting to have their care needs assessed by the end of summer, according to a report which warns of ongoing “significant budgetary challenges” impacting on the social care sector.
Almost a third of directors of adult social care services said they had been asked to make savings collectively totalling £83.7 million for the year to March 2024, research by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) said.
The organisation, which has published the results of its autumn snap survey – sent to every director in the 153 English councils with adult social care responsibilities – said those savings come in addition to the £806 million in savings which directors across England already committed to make in their budgets this year.
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Senior Oflog officials are pressing ahead with their plans to create an early warning system for councils in trouble despite continuing Local Government Association (LGA) resistance, The MJ understands.
Whitehall sources claimed staff at the new local government watchdog had been ‘reaching out proactively and thoroughly’ to the LGA but suggested Smith Square officers had been initially dismissive of Oflog’s work on the early warning system.
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Council social care leaders are having to find millions of pounds of extra savings this year despite winter pressures approaching, a new survey has revealed.
The findings by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Association (LGA) show at least a third of English councils face having to find an extra £84m despite the sector already planning care budget cuts of £806m.
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Social care staff are undertaking activity that would have previously been done by the NHS on an unfunded basis, report 70% of adult social services directors.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) has published findings from its autumn survey report today outlining its members' views on financial pressures councils are facing to balance their books and maintain care and support services.
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A council’s technical financial sustainability is very different to the true sustainability of the place it serves, writes the local government finance spokesperson for the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers and chief executive of Sunderland City Council.
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Local Government financial experts have warned against “crying wolf” amid an increase in councils publicly “threatening” to issue section 114 notices.
At the annual summit of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy hosted a talk on councils in financial difficulty issuing 114 notices.
Joanne Pitt, principal advisor for local government at Cipfa, told councils not to expect to be “bailed out” if they threaten a section 114 notice.
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New analysis has revealed an increase in the amount of finalised 2021/22 accounts, showing that the audit backlog is being addressed but there is “still a long way to go”.
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A “perfect storm” of service pressures, a “broken” children’s social care market, risky commercial investments, and the need for a “wholescale” long-term financial settlement were all discussed by section 151 officers at the latest evidence session of a parliamentary inquiry into financial distress in local authorities.
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee inquiry session was held earlier this week at Portcullis House.
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Allocations of the local highways maintenance funding by authority for the financial years from 2020 to 2034.
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The LGA and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) have called for further funding and support for adult social care in the Autumn Statement. The ADASS Autumn Survey found that nearly a quarter of a million people in England were waiting to have their care needs assessed by the end of summer. Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board called for “immediate investment” in the autumn statement “to address unmet and under-met need and ensure timely access to social care for all who need it”.
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Thousands of people who need support at home face an increased risk of poor care because of low fees, care companies say. The financial pressure councils and trusts are under means they are paying companies less than the work actually costs, according to the Homecare Association which represents UK home care providers.
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New data shows a sharp fall in UK inflation in the year to October, down to 4.6% It's the lowest rate since November 2021 - the fall is mainly down to lower energy prices.
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Prime minister Rishi Sunak said Kirklees MBC is "no longer fit for purpose" during prime minister's question time today.
His assessment came after his Conservative colleague and Dewsbury MP Mark Eastwood shared his concerns that the council is "destroying the high street" and "punishing hard-working families".
Yesterday the council announced that its financial position had improved since the summer but it still faces a £16.1m in-year overspend.
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More than a million homes across England are empty long term, equivalent to over one per cent of all the nation’s properties, a new report from the LGA and the Empty Homes Network published ahead of the Autumn Statement has found. The figure from l