Funding
Select committee chair urges scrapping of social care Green Paper
A senior backbencher has called for the social care Green Paper to be scrapped.
Doubts over new taxes to fund Commonwealth Games
New forms of tax are unlikely to fill a £40m hole in funding for the Commonwealth Games budget, councillors in Birmingham have been told.
Corbyn launches attack on fair funding review
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has entered the debate over the fair funding review, claiming it ‘will make poorer areas even poorer’.
Standing out from the crowdfunding
CrowdFund London was developed by the GLA and Spacehive. James Parkinson says the public sector has an important role in enabling civic projects to come to fruition in this way – and the approach features in Nesta’s innovation compendium
Brokenshire hints at extra Brexit cash for councils
Extra funding could be available to councils to cope with the fallout from a no-deal Brexit, the communities secretary has said.
How not to handle an announcement
The launch of a Stronger Towns Fund to give a boost to the Government hasn't exactly gone to plan, argues Claire Kober - instead it has been a masterclass in how not to handle a political announcement.
What do we want from our public services?
Heather Jameson says the cracks in our communities are starting to show, with knife crime, homelessness and poverty on the rise. But are we really ready for a mature, budget-sharing relationship across public services?
MPs launch inquiry into local government finance
A new inquiry into local government finance will take place ahead of this year's Spending Review.
Council tax rises will not fix ‘chronically underfunded’ care system
Increases in council tax will fail to fix the ‘chronically underfunded’ social care system, local authority leaders have warned.
Rebooting the relationship
Directors of public health believe the impact of the transfer of public health responsibilities to councils in 2013 has been a positive one in county areas, according to a new report commissioned by the County Councils' Network.
Squeezed and broken
Dr Jonathan Carr-West urges local government to make a unified case for greater funding, by seizing the moment in the run-up to the Spending Review
It's time to talk about tax
Paul O'Brien argues It’s time for an honest conversation about tax in the UK - and the 'smoke and mirrors' approach to the funding of public services needs to stop.
Council leaders insist waste reforms must be ‘fully funded’
Local authority leaders have welcomed plans to ‘overhaul’ the waste system, but cautioned Whitehall that any reforms need to be fully funded.
Mets feeling deprived over funding formula
Can the sector reach a consensus on the weighting given to deprivation in the fair funding formula? Ann McGauran examines the local government reaction
Austerity cuts get the blame for Brexit
Domestic political decisions were to blame for Brexit and will do little to help those deprived Leave areas that helped make it happen, says Michael Burton.
Councils are ready to do their best with Brexit
Heather Jameson says that in a breathtakingly brazen attempt to get the blame in early, civil servants have raised concerns about how councils will handle Brexit - but in reality local government is, mostly, at its best in an emergency.
Lords warn services face ‘evisceration’ without radical change
Lords have warned ministers of the ‘evisceration’ of local government unless funding is overhauled.
Balancing children’s outcomes
As pressures on children’s services budgets rise, London boroughs battle with balancing the books and keeping children safe. Ann McGauran reports on an MJ/Newton round table debate on the issues facing the chief executives of London councils
There is no perfect method
'Fair funding' looks to be provoking arguments similar to two bald men fighting over a comb, but reductions in spending estimates for some of the most deprived authorities are not a good look, says Ben Page.
Met councils' chair says proposed changes to funding formula 'grossly unfair'
The chair of the Special Interest Group of Metropolitan Authorities (SIGOMA) has written to James Brokenshire complaining about ‘grossly unfair’ and ‘illogical’ proposed changes to the fair funding formula.