The number of judicial review claims brought by local authorities has risen steadily since 2021, but permissions have fallen, a report from law firm Burges Salmon has found.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has issued a contract notice on its proposed procurement of a Legal Panel for Government.

Councils in Leicestershire are at odds over reorganisation plans, with a set of district and borough councils alongside Rutland County Council hitting out at Leicestershire County Council's proposal to create a single unitary authority for the whole county.

Rates for the Attorney General’s civil panel counsel are to be increased by 25% for all work carried out from 1 April 2025, the Treasury Solicitor has announced.

External auditors reporting on Birmingham City Council's implementation of its Oracle system have highlighted a culture where "either bad news was not welcome, or officers felt uncomfortable to communicate bad news".

The Welsh Government has published a governance handbook for members of national park authorities to help them make effective decisions.

The Government has agreed in principle to provide Exceptional Financial Support In the financial year 2025-26 to 30 councils who made a request for financial assistance "to handle pressures that they considered unmanageable and to enable them to set balanced budgets".

The City of Wolverhampton Council has partly credited the bump in Government funding for plans to cut the local authority’s savings target by almost half over the next two years.

Southampton City Council has said it can now balance its budget without taking Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from the Government, although it hopes to use some unused EFS from 2024/25 to cover the costs of equal pay, transformation and restructuring.

The Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) has issued a wide-ranging report on electoral reform in the UK, containing some 57 recommendations, and warned that elections are being delivered in spite of “fragmented and outdated” legislation.

Wiltshire Council is to withdraw an appeal against a finding by an Employment Tribunal that an email sent by the local authority’s chief executive to union members ahead of a vote on industrial action was unlawful as it sought to deter union members from voting in favour of a strike.

More than half of councils that support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have warned they will become insolvent when the “statutory override” – a temporary accounting measure that keeps spending deficits relating to SEND off their main balance sheets – ends next year, a survey by the Local Government Association has found.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched consultations for the six areas selected for its Devolution Priority Programme.

Councils in England face a funding gap of more than £8 billion by 2028/29 without adequate funding, the Local Government Association has warned in its submission to the Treasury ahead of the Spending Review.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has confirmed that it has opened an investigation regarding the conduct of two individual accountants in relation to Woking Borough Council’s operations and investment activities.

The High Court has dismissed a council’s application for judicial review against the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) over a report that upheld a complaint of maladministration against the local authority in a nursery school fees case.

Risk management should be embedded within local authorities' organisational structure and culture by establishing clear roles, responsibilities and reporting lines for this function, a report by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) and Browne Jacobson has suggested.

The Ministry for Housing, Local Government and Communities has urged councils set to embark on reorganisation to make "every effort to work together" to submit a single proposal to the Government rather than competing proposals.

Spelthorne Borough Council has carried out a review after external auditors called on it to "urgently" assess the governance and oversight of a wholly owned subsidiary company, having found conflicts of interest connected to the company's staffing.

North Yorkshire Council has issued a pre-action protocol letter over the Government's decision to rescind the rural services delivery grant worth millions, a move the unitary authority had previously dubbed "Rayner's rural robbery".

East Hertfordshire District Council is set to adopt the Code of Practice on Good Governance after a report prepared by the Local Government Association (LGA) referred to "breakdowns" at the statutory officer level.

Six areas in England have been selected for the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme, with mayors to be elected by May 2026, the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has announced.

Removal of the possibility of so-called ‘fire and rehire’, without a replacement mechanism for making contractual changes to terms and conditions, will impact on councils’ ability to implement equality proofed pay structures or deliver local government reorganisation, the Local Government Association has warned.

The Government has confirmed a final local government finance settlement for 2025-26 of £69bn, which it claims will provide councils with a 6.8% cash-terms increase in core spending power.

A councillor at Torridge District Council has been jailed for 18 weeks for harassment of the local authority’s head of legal and governance.

External auditors have called on Birmingham City Council to tackle a series of cultural challenges at the local authority, including the alleged suppression of bad news and silo working in parts of the organisation.

There is “little evidence" behind the Government's requirement for all two-tier areas to reorganise into unitary councils covering a population of more than 500,000 people, the District Councils' Network (DCN) has claimed.

Law reform charity JUSTICE has proposed the first rights-based framework to guide AI use across the UK justice system in a report that has urged the deployment of the technology be guided by a “clear purpose and responsibility”.

The Welsh Government has applied to the Supreme Court to appeal a Court of Appeal decision that found Wrexham Borough Council did not have to adopt its local development plan (LDP) despite a High Court judge previously saying otherwise.

Public bodies in Wales have failed to consistently align service delivery with their legal duties under equalities and human rights legislation, Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Michelle Morris has said.