07 December 2018

Whitehall remains unconvinced that local government is as efficient as it can be, Smith Square’s deputy chief executive, Sarah Pickup, has said.

05 December 2018

Andy Burnham threatened to pull Greater Manchester out of the asylum resettlement scheme - igniting the debate about refugee dispersal. But forcing councils to take on more families without more funding will make the problem worse, says the sector.

04 December 2018

Controversial plans to rate councils’ financial sustainability using traffic lights have been watered down by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

21 November 2018

Local government could lose up to £12m per month from June after struggling to spend funds from the Apprenticeship Levy, initial estimates have suggested.

19 November 2018

Opposition politicians have hit out at the Government’s record on funding the sector at the County Councils’ Network conference today.

19 November 2018

Failing to do more devolution is Lord Porter’s biggest regret in his career as Local Government Association chairman so far, he told the County Councils' Network conference today.

15 November 2018

Communities secretary James Brokenshire has threatened to withhold the shared prosperity fund (SPF) from areas that fail to remove local enterprise partnership (LEP) overlaps.

14 November 2018

A tax increase for the over-40s could be introduced to bridge the adult social care spending gap after the health secretary praised the idea.

12 November 2018

The Municipal Bonds Agency (MBA) has made direct approaches to finance directors as it maintains hope of a £200m issue in the first quarter of 2019.

09 November 2018

Bristol City Council (BCC) ‘lost a year’ due to inertia caused by a lack of officer leadership, Local Government Association peers have been told.

07 November 2018

The Adult Social Care Green Paper must tackle the issue of funding and should provide a platform for radical reform, according to the deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association (LGA).

05 November 2018

Local Government Association vice-president Wes Streeting has called for a cross-party coalition of MPs to campaign for a major and urgent increase in council funding.

31 October 2018

Senior councillors have been warned not to talk about a secret Local Government Association (LGA) report that models what fiscal devolution might look like, The MJ has been told.

31 October 2018

Local authorities have been warned to prepare for up to three months of disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

29 October 2018

Business rates for small high street retailers in England will be cut by one-third over the next two years, the chancellor Philip Hammond has announced.

24 October 2018

Senior Marsham Street officials have stepped up their preparations for Brexit after complaints from frustrated councils that they were being shut out of the process.

23 October 2018

Smith Square has penned a stinging rebuke to a senior civil servant over Whitehall’s shock decision to strip responsibility for Universal Support from councils.

23 October 2018

Marsham Street has given its clearest indication yet that it could be open to considering council calls for a tourism tax.

16 October 2018

Smith Square’s top-slice funding could be slashed under plans being considered by Whitehall over fears the sector-led improvement regime is not delivering good value.

16 October 2018

Whitehall must use the expertise of councils to sort out Universal Credit (UC), a former senior Government adviser has told The MJ.