Audit, Inspection and Safety

County council approves £153m link road amid climate change protests

16.07.19: Norwich county councillors have formally approved a new link road for the Norwich bypass, despite the environmental group Extinction Rebellion staging protests on the steps of the County Hall. The council’s cabinet committee backed a...

Extra £28m announced to alleviate pressures on councils through Controlling Migration Fund

15.07.19: Councils across England are set to receive a further £28m to help ease pressures on local services following increased migration, from alleviating rough sleeping and community integration to targeting rogue landlords. The funding boos...

Councils welcome government review of guidance for youth services

11.07.19: A review of the statutory guidance for council-provided youth services has been launched by the government. Civil society minister Mims Davies made the announcement, stating that the review will “focus on the positive role local autho...

New guidance for academy trusts to ‘crack down on excessive executive pay’

09.07.19: New guidance for setting executive pay has been published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), suggesting trusts must be prepared to cut pay in cases of poor management. The new guidance sets out key factors that should be use...

Amey to pay Birmingham City Council £300m to exit 25-year highways maintenance contract

08.07.19: Outsourcing giant Amey has struck a deal with Birmingham City Council to pay the authority £300m to escape its troubled road maintenance deal which was worth £2.7bn. The deal will see Amey pay the city council £215m to cut...

Next phase of competition to predict cyber threats launched with £850k funding

04.07.19: The second phase of the Predictive Cyber Analytics competition has been launched by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) in order to help develop a deployable solution to predict and counter future cyber threats. This competition is...

Northamptonshire CC delivers ‘remarkable’ multi-million underspend

04.07.19: Northamptonshire County Council has delivered a balanced budget for 2018-19 with a “remarkable” underspend of £4.5m, a £34.6m improvement compared to July 2018. Last year the cash-strapped council was twice forced to...

LGA chair Jamieson calls for higher taxes and greater freedoms for councils to tackle austerity

03.07.19: Local authorities must be given “more powers, funding” and the freedom to raise council taxes in order to tackle the widespread challenges facing councils, the new chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) has said. Speaki...

‘Exploitative’ sale of new-build houses as leaseholds outlawed by government

01.07.19: New-build houses will now be sold on a freehold basis, the government has announced, effectively outlawing the “unscrupulous practice of unnecessary leaseholds.” All future homeowners will benefit in a “bold move to tackle...

HSE announce new chief executive Sarah Albon

28.06.19: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has announced that Sarah Albon has been appointed its new chief executive, with the current inspector general and chief executive of the Insolvency Service joining HSE on 1 September. Ms Albon will...

A fifth of public sector workers have never received a thank you from the people they serve

13.06.19: A fifth of the country’s public sector workers say they have NEVER received a ‘thank you’ for doing their job as Public Service Day approaches. Almost 5.4 million people are employed in the public sector and civil service...

Evaluating 5G, unapologetically

10.06.19: Martin Ferguson, director of policy and research at Socitm, discusses the potential of 5G in the public sector, and the need to properly assess the risks. Let’s face it. There’s something quintessentially British about apologisi...

Even ‘draconian cuts won’t be enough’ as councils face £50bn funding blackhole

22.05.19: Councils in England face a funding black hole of over £50bn across the next six years, according to a new report warning that local authorities will soon be forced to resort to providing the “bare minimum.” In the new repo...

Councils get £30m boost to look after asylum seeking children

10.05.19: The government has announced a £30m funding boost for councils looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) following warnings that minors are being “left in limbo.” Immigration minister Caroline Nokes reveal...

New emergency services radio system to be at least £3bn overbudget and three years late as Home Office failings blasted by NAO

10.05.19: An overhaul of the communications system used by the UK’s emergency services will be at least £3bn overbudget and three years late, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed. The Emergency Services Network was c...