Finance
Councils pay £1m in data breach compensation
More than £1m has been paid out by 39 councils in compensation for data breaches in the past three years.
Election timetable means councils face race against time
Councils’ next finance settlement may have to be announced before a Spending Review amid ‘extremely accelerated’ demands after the General Election, experts have warned.
Cuts linked to widening health inequalities
Widening health inequalities across England are directly associated with cuts to councils’ spending power, according to research.
Council debt up by £52bn since 2010
Local government debt has increased by 78% since 2010 as councils attempted to make up for cuts to Government funding, research has revealed.
Brum equal pay wait goes on
Birmingham City Council faces a further wait before declaring its official equal pay liabilities after auditors warned ‘we have yet to receive the evidence we need to complete our work’.
'Blunt tool' ranks council finances
Rushcliffe BC is the highest-ranked council in England for finance with Leeds City Council coming bottom, according to metrics.
Gove could launch police inquiry for Birmingham
Reports the levelling up secretary could send a police chief in to investigate financial mismanagement in Birmingham City Council have resurfaced on the eve of local elections.
Council incurs £3.7m overspend on IT system
Vale of Glamorgan Council took more than a year longer than planned to install a new IT system, leading to a £3.7m overspend.
Let’s plan ahead
Steve Guest warns of the importance of preparing our future leaders for the task ahead by creating ‘leadership space’ and incorporating more formal training and development – before it’s too late.
How we can build an AI foundation
James Johns analyses the perceived lack of trust in AI technology and says it’s time to take the right steps to making it work for your organisation.
Reclaiming our regions
Twelve months into a five-year project examining how to build more inclusive regional economies, Tom Lloyd Goodwin highlights four emerging priority areas for the next UK Government to address.
Are the grown-ups in the room?
Labour’s alternative to levelling up could mark a step change to a more mature relationship between the centre and our regions, say Annabel Smith and Ben Franklin.
Doing the basics well helps us deal with the changes to come
If the last 12 to 18 months has taught the sector anything, it is that volatility remains a watchword, says Adele Taylor: 'But we also need to play our part in controlling and managing what we can.'
Blunt instrument doesn’t show the whole picture
Heather Jameson says the league tables ministers wanted to avoid are here to stay. 'They will just need to get better at providing a fuller picture.'
Auditors issue warning over member-officer relations at district
Teignbridge DC has deployed external support to improve member-officer relations after auditors reported the authority has made little progress since warnings last year.
1984 and all that
Forty years from the passing of the Rates Act, how relevant are the provisions designed to give central government control over the governance of local taxation and expenditure, asks Jonathan Werran.
districtview
Perhaps the sector would benefit from clear KPIs for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, including about when it will reform the local government finance system, says Ian Miller.
Guildford to sell £50m of assets
Guildford BC has approved the sale of £50m of assets over three years under plans to stabilise the Surrey-based authority’s finances.
Sunak's defence spending could hit council budgets, says IFS
The Prime Minister’s announcement of extra defence cash could hit public sector budgets further, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Productivity matters
Nicole Wood says the sector 'can and should bring our corporate, digital, people and commercial capability together to answer whether we are delivering productivity and what opportunity there is to do more'.
