The Local Government Association has defended its corporate peer challenge process after being questioned over a 2019 report praising the approach that led Woking Borough Council to a financial...
The lack of internal scrutiny ahead of Thurrock Council’s collapse proves the importance of councillor training and financial understanding, experts have said.
The high-profile failures of councils in Woking and Thurrock demonstrate the importance of a strong and well-understood local audit system, which has arguably been lost, two senior voices in the...
Local councils need ‘radical change’ to keep delivering for the people of Scotland, according to a recent report from the Accounts Commission. So, what about adopting a rights-based approach to...
Thurrock Council will need to cut services back to near the statutory minimum after “repeated failures” to manage major investment and regeneration projects led to substantial losses, a long-awaited...
English councils have welcomed a government pledge to fully fund a pay rise for NHS contracted services this year, which council leaders said will safeguard community healthcare.
Dwindling reserves and the need to make more than £50m of cuts to balance the 2023-24 budget have put Shropshire Council in an “extremely challenging” position, the Local Government Association...
The UK’s social housing model is too reliant on providers making sales to generate income, creating “conflicts of interest” in the system, MPs have been told.
A huge drop in the value of Spelthorne Borough Council’s commercial investments has been revealed in its draft statement of accounts for 2022-23, but the income they generate is “holding up well”.
The council’s additional minimum revenue provision this year – after being under-calculated for more than a decade – is nearly six times its core funding.
MPs heard that local audit needs a fresh start to clear the backlog and return to timely account sign-off, but were warned that such a move would be risky.
The huge backlog of unaudited local government accounts has ramifications across government, including for entire departments and the NHS, the head of the NAO has warned.
Administrators have begun selling the assets of a solar investment company to which Thurrock Council lent more than £650m, in order to repay the company’s debts.
