Financial sustainability of local authorities: capital expenditure and resourcing
Published on:Local authorities have kept up levels of capital spending but face pressure to meet debt costs and maintain investment in existing assets.
Local authorities have kept up levels of capital spending but face pressure to meet debt costs and maintain investment in existing assets.
Overall spending on discretionary local welfare support by central and local government has reduced since April 2013. The consequences of this gap in provision are not understood.
Additional funding, aimed to help the NHS get on a financially sustainable footing, has instead been spent on coping with existing pressures.
The role and remit of Local Enterprise Partnerships has grown since 2010, but the approach taken by DCLG to overseeing Growth Deals risks future value for money.
The Better Care Fund has not achieved the expected value for money, in terms of savings, outcomes for patients or hospital activity.
Having shown that the concept of a national citizen service has something to offer young people, to demonstrate value for money the OCS and the Trust now need to show they can grow NCS as intended and run it at a more affordable cost to the taxpayer.
Devolution deals to devolve power from central government to local areas in England offer opportunities to stimulate economic growth and reform public services for local users, but the arrangements are untested and government could do more to provide confidence that these deals will achieve the benefits intended
The Department of Health & Social Care’s role in overseeing the adult social care workforce.
With projected demand falling and costs of carriages rising, there are risks to value for money from plans to increase capacity on the rail network.
The use of PFI by local authorities to improve housing, usually in areas with a high need for housing and where stock condition is particularly poor, has had a measure of success. However, risks to value for money of the programme have not been managed.
A report today from the National Audit Office summarises the results of the European Court of Auditors’ examination of the European Union’s accounts for 2007 and progress on the range of initiatives taken forward by the Commission and Member States. For the first time the Court provided a positive Statement of Assurance, without qualification, on […]
The Department for Communities and Local Government has given local authorities approximately £68 million a year to improve the handling of planning applications and in particular to speed them up. While authorities are taking more decisions on major housing schemes within 13 weeks, the true extent of the improvement across the development process is not […]
Public electric vehicle chargepoint installations are on track, but government needs to make sure they are located in the right places.
UK Government says it is on track to meet target to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. Local authorities’ ability to secure suitable school places and houses a risk to success. NAO estimate programme will cost £1.12bn by 2020.
The majority of carers who receive benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are satisfied with the support they receive, worth up to £2 billion a year. The Department is delivering carers’ benefits effectively and has made improvements in processing claims in the last few years. But at least a fifth have difficulties […]
Local authorities should work more collaboratively with voluntary and community organisations to help them improve the delivery of public services, according to a report out today by the National Audit Office. The report looked at whether Local Area Agreements (LAAs) are helping to promote better value for money in the way government works with the […]
This briefing has been prepared for the Communities and Local Government Select Committee to provide an overview of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s financial management in 2009-10 and its structural reform priorities.
The NAO’s report highlights that England’s special educational needs system is not delivering better outcomes for children and young people.
The National Audit Office has today called for a step change improvement in how central government departments work with each other and with regional and local bodies, if the Government’s ambitious aspirations for the Thames Gateway region are to be realised. The Government has set out its vision to make the Thames Gateway, the area […]
The NAO strategy 2014-15 to 2016-17 sets out how our public audit perspective will help Parliament hold government to account and improve public services.