Problems at Liverpool City Council have been laid bare by fresh developments highlighting how executives and politicians faced cultural issues that led to government intervention.

On 28 July, accounting firm Mazars released its assessment of how the city council signed-off an energy contract which turned out to be void.While financial experts found ‘no evidence of malpractice or a cover-up’ by council employees, they reported that lack of oversight, poor communication and staff too afraid to raise the alarm caused Liverpool’s energy bill to soar by £10m earlier this year.