Research for Action

With the PM expected to announce regeneration funding for 300 areas today, our recent poll found...

-40% of Britons say their local area is in a bad state
-48% say it is worse than 10yrs ago
-32% expect it to get worse in a year's time

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

How successive government have created a new rentier economy Governments appease corporations and the super-rich by following the old policies which benefit a few.

Rentier economy.

61% of England local authority budgets spent on social care, mostly privatised.

Adult social care providers profit margin up to 42%. Children's care homes, 23%.

Money buys less. Front line services suffer.

Political paralysis: No major party plans to end to privatisation.

A way forward for councils in debt crisis - Room151 Trade union Unite has developed three solutions in response to the debt crisis at some local authorities, says general secretary Sharon Graham

Very interesting and well-argued opening from Unite the union on how the government could deal with Birmingham's debt:

A way forward for councils in debt crisis www.room151.co.uk/treasury/a-w...

Steve Reed appointed Labour Housing Minister: Can the former Lambeth Leader deliver on 1.5 million new homes? Steve Reed, MP for Streatham and Croydon North, and former Leader of Lambeth Council, has been appointed Labour’s new Housing Minister. This promotion comes after 14 months as Environment Secretary…

What a thorough profile of the new secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Steve Reed in the @brixtonbuzz.bsky.social

This kind of detail about an ex council leader's record is what local media does best, and why we need it for democracy

www.brixtonbuzz.com/2025/09/stev...

Yesterday, we followed the 2nd reading of the English Devolution Bill in Parliament. Only 4 MPs spoke on local audit!

With only 4% of councils submitting audited accounts last year, this accountability crisis needs more attention.

Our take on the reforms here: researchforaction.uk/local-audit-...

📚 I've co-written this report for @research-for-act.bsky.social into how to urgently improve the poor accessibility of financial information from local councils, in collaboration with Sussex Uni researchforaction.uk/new-report-o...

Council debt 2025: Scale of local authority deficits revealed Hundreds of council-owned buildings being sold as local authorities seek to reduce debts of £122bn.

Will selling off community centres, sports clubs & nurseries fix the local authority funding crisis? No.

Will giving more councils the power to borrow in the short-term to fund everyday services fix the local government funding crisis? Also no.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Council debt 2025: Scale of local authority deficits revealed Hundreds of council-owned buildings being sold as local authorities seek to reduce debts of £122bn.

📈 Staggering new BBC report shows scale of community spaces being lost to pay council debt 🏫🏚️

£2.9bn of public assets have been sold in the last two years, from care homes to sports clubs to nurseries to youth centres to pubs.

1/ 🧵

Next week, Parliament will debate the English Devolution Bill that suggests the biggest upheaval of #localgov in decades.

The bill also tries to fix the local audit crisis - welcome start but more is needed, we say:

👉👉 researchforaction.uk/local-audit-...

"Financial reporting ‘hit by austerity and lack of standard requirements'"

Coverage of our & University of Sussex's recent report on Room 151: www.room151.co.uk/news-in-brie...

Read full report on our website: researchforaction.uk/new-report-o...

Have you ever tried to engage with council budgets & been left baffled by the complexity? Had to fight really hard to get information?

In a new report with Uni of Sussex, we make recommendations how #localgov could present financial information more accessible: researchforaction.uk/new-report-o...

📣 NEW REPORT!

👀 Scrutiny of #localgov finances is more important than ever, yet councillors, academics, the public all struggle to understand this financial information. Our new report (with University of Sussex) makes the case for changing that.

Read it here ▶️ researchforaction.uk/new-report-o...

The second reading of this (first opportunity for debate) is in Commons on 2nd Sept - we are going to publish our thoughts for what needs to be discussed soon!

Save our Saturdays! Saturday is a busy day for public libraries across the city. Now those Saturday library days are under threat. BCC has proposed a 50% cut to Saturday openings across the city. Libraries are not luxuri...

Here's an example of campaigners responding to #CouncilsInCrisis by underlining the need for services to be there when people most need them - this time libraries on a Saturday in Birmingham. www.birminghamloveslibraries.org/post/save-ou... #SaveOurSaturdays

Text: 20 top tips for an information request alongside the Scottish Information Commissioner logo. Text on purple background reads: "Find the right authority first!" Wooden sign with arrows pointing in all directions with council, NHS, police and university listed, each with a question mark.

It might sound obvious, but make sure you're sending your FOI request to the right authority. A quick bit of research can help you find out who is likely to hold the info you’re after.
#FOI20 #Scotland

⁉️NEW: A guide to councils in crisis and Westminster interventions👀

Everything you ever wanted to know about councils getting taken over by the government. What’s a section 114? Who are commissioners & what do they do? What are different types of interventions? researchforaction.uk/guide-local-...

When I was in France recently, I noticed many translations from French to English in visitor attractions were woeful. I realised it was probably because they are being done by AI rather than human translators....

Any #LocalGov nerds have a clear understanding of the difference between (new) Ministerial Envoys and Ministerial Commissioners in local gov interventions? I've got a combo of Hansard, individual directions for specific councils, press stories etc but it still doesn't add up.

We're hoping to do an update of our Local News Map this summer. If we've missed an outlet — or got details wrong — please fill in the form on the map.publicinterestnews.org.uk page. 🗺️ 📍 📰

Commons report “The Funding and Sustainability of Local Government Finance” concludes:

“Residents are seeing a deterioration in the services they rely on, while being asked to pay more and more in taxes.”

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

' Central government, so used to its tight control of local government’s purse strings, must learn to ease its grip and let councils have more power to control their own affairs, accountable not to Westminster, but to their own local
electorates.'

🙋Who's reading the HCLG Committee report on Funding and Sustainability of #LocalGov Finance? Am going to share some key first impressions and stuff we think is important. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee has published its report on local government finance. In it, it recommends that the Government should publish its vision for local government by the end of 2025:

Government appoints commissioners at Croydon - Newsroom The Government has appointed commissioners at Croydon Council for a period of two years.

Govt appoints commissioners at Croydon Council #CouncilsInCrisis news.croydon.gov.uk/government-a...

Since then govt has rolled out Local Audit Office plans in new #EnglishDevolution Bill but there are real gaps - researchforaction.uk/local-audit-...

when this happened last year, we wrote about why this matters and what should be done. researchforaction.uk/national-att...

Whole of Government Accounts 2023-24 - NAO report The Whole of Government Accounts consolidates accounts from over 10,000 public bodies, providing an overview of the UK’s public finances.

The National Audit Office (govt spending watchdog) has refused to sign off Whole of Govt Accounts for 2nd year running. Again, #LocalAudit backlog is a huge part of this - only 4% of #LocalGov councils in England submitted adequate audited data www.nao.org.uk/reports/whol...

@stillawake17.bsky.social thanks Joanna!

Pavement Parking Prohibitions - Glasgow City Council Information on new Pavement Parking Prohibitions

Meanwhile Scottish Govt has given councils these powers and they are using them www.glasgow.gov.uk/article/7984...

@benworthy.bsky.social thanks Ben!