Financial data for April to June shows councils’ revenue spending up 19% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. The figures will have made sombre reading in Whitehall and town...
Business rates retention and other council funding mechanisms aimed at incentivising growth should be scrapped to focus on post-Covid recovery, according to the interest group representing urban...
Luton Borough Council has agreed a “horrendous” package of spending cuts after the airport operator it owns declared it could not make an expected £16m dividend payment due to Covid-19.
The government may need to rethink its fiscal policy strategy to account for economic shocks happening more frequently than previously assumed, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Specialist spend management systems, comprising Travel, Expense and Invoice management, are still a novelty in many parts of the public sector, but activity continues to grow.
The government has announced it will quadruple the size of loans available through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme from £50m to £200m.
Directors of resources and Section 151 officers have an even more crucial role to play as the pandemic plays out, argues director at Impower Ebony Hughes.
Low funding and dwindling reserves mean a local authority in Derbyshire risks considering an unbalanced budget by 2021-22, councillors have been warned.
Coronavirus could push a number of nations into a recession under a worst case scenario outlined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Asking ministers to find departmental savings worth 5% was not unexpected or unprecedented, but it may be difficult to achieve and is unlikely to free up enough money to meet the government’s other...
The latest CIPFA/IfG Performance Tracker report highlights a ‘turning point’ in the public sector’s life under austerity but warns that government spending decisions remain short-term. ...
Both Labour and the Conservatives are not being honest with the electorate over tax and spend pledges in their manifestos, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
Whichever party wins the election, they will have to make trade-offs in order to maintain public service standards, writes the Institute for Government’s Graham Atkins.
Investment might be flowing into local areas but poverty and inequality persist. ‘New municipalism’ is a term that has emerged as an answer to improving local economic development. Dominic Brady...
UK government payments to third parties to supply goods and services was 20% higher than predicted over three years because of poor procurement and outsourcing, according to a think-tank.
PF in association with CIPFA has created a ‘promisometer’ to which spending pledges by the three main parties will be added ahead of the election on 12 December.
Although education had some certainty for the next three years, other public services did not and some areas are still likely to feel the pinch of austerity over the next year, says CIPFA’s Don...
Local government currently has no certainty over funding and must ensure political parties see giving it greater control over its finances as a manifesto issue, says Localis’ Jonathan...
One hundred chief executives have written to Boris Johnson to call on him to create a “world-leading” fund to replace money that currently comes from the EU to help local areas grow.