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SubscriptionsCategory: Local Government
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Reform UK Accused of ‘Betraying Residents’ for Benefit of Fossil Fuel Donors as More Net Zero Targets Scrapped
Nigel Farage’s party is scrapping green initiatives in local authorities across the country after taking millions of pounds in donations from oil and gas interests
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Councils Face Legal Challenges for Continuing to Invest in Firms Accused of ‘Aiding Genocide’ in Gaza
Exclusive: New legal opinion suggests local authorities and central Government are at legal risk if they continue to invest in firms involved in human rights violations in Gaza
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Sacked, Expelled, or in the Dock: All the Reform UK Councillors Nigel Farage Has Lost in Just Four Months
Party faces questions over candidate screening after string of resignations, expulsions and criminal investigations
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Reform UK Councillors ‘Exploited Legal Loophole’ to Dodge Spending Limits on Farage Election Leaflets
Exclusive: At least 12 newly elected Reform UK councillors in Durham did not declare costs for mass mailings from party leader that attacked local council’s spending
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Labour Mayor Accuses Treasury of Blocking Tourism Levy Despite Devolution Pledge
Exclusive: Labour’s Mayor of the North East Kim McGuinness says Government’s progress on devolving power has been “slow” because “our leaders haven’t trusted local people”
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Bankrupt Firm of Reform UK’s Waste-Busting Local Government Chief Owes Taxpayer £36,000
EXCLUSIVE: Cllr Jaymey McIvor declared his company insolvent months before becoming party’s director tasked with stamping out council waste. Taxpayers are likely to pick up the tab. Olly Haynes reports
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‘Clickbait and Chaos’ — 100 days of Reform UK Running Kent County Council
Saturday marks 100 days since Reform UK won 57 of the 81 seats at Kent County Council. The Greens’ local leader looks at how it’s going so far
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Reform Council Accused of ‘Trump-Like’ Behaviour Over Pride Flag Ban
EXCLUSIVE: Nigel Farage’s party accused of dodging accountability after removing LGBT+ and Ukraine flags in one of their newly won councils without any formal decision or paper trail
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Reform Council Bans All Mentions of Climate Change While Quietly Taking Green Funds From Government
Reform-run West Northamptonshire is removing all references to ‘climate change’ and ‘net zero’ from official documents, yet continuing to take government green grants
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First Past the Post to Be Scrapped for English Mayoral Elections in Bid to Reverse Conservative ‘Gerrymandering’
The move reverses changes made by the last Conservative Government, which was accused of seeking to “stitch up” elections in its own favour
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Reform UK Tells Prospective Candidates Who Failed Vetting to Reapply Under New ‘Common Sense’ Rules
Individuals previously blocked from standing for Nigel Farage’s party have been told to reapply under new rules prioritising “freedom of expression”
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Reform’s Darren Grimes Accused of Lying After Police Deny Telling Him Not to Hold Council Surgeries for ‘Security’ Reasons
EXCLUSIVE: Local police have rejected the Reform UK deputy council leader’s claim that they advised him not to meet his constituents
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Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf Accused of Politicising Council Staff With Propaganda Picture
EXCLUSIVE: Photos show council chief executive posing with Nigel Farage’s ‘DOGE’ team in image used for Reform party promo
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From Lawnmower Mishaps to Expenses Scandals: 10 Fresh Embarrassments for Reform UK
Nigel Farage’s newly-expanded party is already struggling with costly U-turns, police investigations and increasingly bizarre behaviour
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Hundreds of Local Authorities Remain on the Brink of Bankruptcy, Despite Government Bailouts
An ageing population and successive cuts by the last Conservative Government have left local council budgets on the brink, reports David Hencke
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Resignations, Cancelled Meetings and Culture Wars: How Reform UK Councils Are Descending Into Chaos
Nigel Farage’s band of newly-elected councillors are already starting to struggle, reports Josiah Mortimer
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Reform UK’s Elon Musk-Style ‘Doge’ Team Is in Turmoil Following Major Resignations
The team set up by Nigel Farage to slash spending in the local authorities his party now runs across England is already falling apart
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UK Local Council Pension Funds Are Investing Billions in Companies ‘Enabling Israeli Apartheid’
EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of millions of pounds were invested in arms companies supplying Israel with weapons, including BAE Systems, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corporation
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The Sheer Scale of the Conservative Local Government Auditing Scandal Is Only Now Becoming Clear
Billions of pounds in spending remains unaccounted for, with the National Audit Office unable to sign off the nation’s accounts
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Local Government is on a ‘Precipice’ With Billions in Cuts Coming Soon to These Councils
Cash-strapped local authorities across Britain are teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Here are the ones most at risk
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Councils Across UK are Holding Fire-Sales of Public Assets from Libraries to Farms – Often with No Consultation
Councils are flogging off local treasures as cuts continue to bite. This is a list of just some of the assets currently on the market
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‘Rushed’ Airport Sell-Off Sparks Anger as Councils Push Through Privatisation to Plug Shortfalls
Concern is growing over a Conservative-led council’s opaque plans to privatise Cornwall Newquay Airport. It’s part of a bigger picture across England
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‘Parents Are Not to Blame for the Cost Demands on a SEND System Under Increasing Pressure’
A recent report was problematic for appearing to place responsibility with ‘demanding parents’ who contribute to local authority financial problems, writes Sharon Smith
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Conservatives Branded ‘Nasty Party’ as Voters Reject Plan to Target Sick and Disabled
Government plans to target welfare payments to the long-term sick and disabled are deeply unpopular, an exclusive new poll suggests
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Susan Hall Voted to Raise Council Tax Despite Condemning Sadiq Khan for Doing the Same
The Conservative candidate for London Mayor has been very vocal about council tax hikes – but in 2023 she voted to raise Harrow’s by more than 5%
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Just a Fraction of Voters Who Lack Photo ID Apply for ‘Free’ Identification – In Warning Sign for Mayoral Elections
Low take-up of the Government’s Voter Authority Certificate poses a risk to voters in May’s local elections, campaigners warn
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‘The Country has Noticed the Conservatives’ Lack of Levelling Up’
Since Boris Johnson’s 2019 pledge, the public has received more of the same – austerity and higher taxes from the Government and, in many cases, cash-strapped local councils
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English Councils on the Brink of Meltdown: A Crisis Fourteen Years in the Making
A systematic reduction of funds to some of the poorest parts of England leaves many of the most needed public services at risk of collapse
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London Council Breaches Human Rights Law After Subjecting Asylum Seeker to Degrading Treatment
The High Court ruled against Croydon Council in relation to its treatment of a disabled asylum seeker.
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Grenfell: Michael Gove Deflecting the Blame Away from Conservative Politicians
A legal settlement between various parties and the families of Grenfell victims suggests where the responsibility for the 2017 fire actually lies
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Tens of Billions in Government and Council Pandemic Spending Unaccounted For as Local Authority Auditing Scandal Worsens
A new report by the Public Accounts Committee lambasts the Treasury for being ‘too passive’ in chasing up the cash, resulting in inaccurate figures
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Half of all Local Authorities in England at Risk of Going Bust Next Year
MPs have warned Michael Gove that large numbers of councils could soon be in severe financial distress
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Democracy Experts Sound Alarm on Corruption Risk as Local Council Audits Collapse
With only a fraction of local government audits now completed on time and a significant decline in their quality, a fundamental pillar of devolution is under threat, leaving communities in the dark on their council finances, experts warn
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Who Owns the Thames? Giant Party Boat OceanDiva is Frontline in Battle Over London’s River Amid Claims of ‘Zero Accountability’
The controversy over a £25m party boat speaks to a wider issue: who decides what happens around the Thames?
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New Cash for Buses Means Little if Councils Remain Stripped of Power by Westminster
Councils are at the whim of multinational transport firms when it comes to local transport
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Nine UK Areas Breach Legal Pollution Limits as Manchester Tops League
Campaigners say the most polluting vehicles must be taken off the roads to save lives
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Welsh Government Throws Down the Gauntlet in Bid to Stop Controversial ‘Anti-Boycott’ Bill
Opponents of the bill say it is designed to undermine the freedom of speech of those critical of the Israeli Government
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Johnson Loyalist Baroness Charlotte Owen Nails her Colours to the Mast in First House of Lords Votes
The youngest ever life peer cast four failed votes with the Government before she’s even made her first speech
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The Curious Case of the Crooked House: Developers Don’t Just Destroy Pubs by Tearing Them Down
Cultural vandalism takes many forms, writes Josiah Mortimer
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Councils Exposed to Corruption Due to Collapse of Local Auditing – After Accounting Firms Lobbied for Watchdog’s Abolition
Just one in nine local council audits are now conducted on time – which researchers blame on a privatised system
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Gove Fails to Tackle £100 Billion of Unaudited Local Council Accounts
A parliamentary report confirms Byline Times’ story about the collapse in the auditing of how taxpayers’ money is being spent on public services
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Council Coffers Crisis Revealed: Auditing of Public Money by Local Authorities Collapses – So How is Taxpayers’ Cash Being Spent?
Serious problems have arisen after the Government abolished the Audit Commission and handed the job to private accountancy firms instead
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Illicit Pacts and Power-Sharing: Labour Activists Face Suspensions and NEC Veto Over Council Coalitions
A party crackdown on local party cooperation is preventing Labour councillors from leveraging their election victories to unseat the Tories in some towns, Josiah Mortimer reports
