Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Why is local government in such trouble?
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Why is local government in such trouble?
It’s been another difficult week for local government. Birmingham City Council announced it needs to make up to 600 redundancies to help balance its books and Middlesbrough Council decided to apply to the Government for £15m of emergency funding to avoid effective bankruptcy. Also this week new figures have been released showing just how much debt some local authorities hold. And it’s a lot.
Since 2021 there have been six councils which have declared themselves effectively bankrupt. Given the responsibilities of local government that feels serious for many of us.
So what are the financial pressures facing councils and why?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:
Aileen Murphie, specialist adviser to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee and former National Audit Office Director
Tony Travers, visiting Professor at the LSE’s Department of Government
Kate Ogden, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonald
Production Co-ordinators: Sophie Hill
Sound: Andy Fell
Editor: Richard Vadon
View all episodes
By BBC Radio 4
4.8
5353 ratings
It’s been another difficult week for local government. Birmingham City Council announced it needs to make up to 600 redundancies to help balance its books and Middlesbrough Council decided to apply to the Government for £15m of emergency funding to avoid effective bankruptcy. Also this week new figures have been released showing just how much debt some local authorities hold. And it’s a lot.
Since 2021 there have been six councils which have declared themselves effectively bankrupt. Given the responsibilities of local government that feels serious for many of us.
So what are the financial pressures facing councils and why?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:
Aileen Murphie, specialist adviser to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee and former National Audit Office Director
Tony Travers, visiting Professor at the LSE’s Department of Government
Kate Ogden, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonald
Production Co-ordinators: Sophie Hill
Sound: Andy Fell
Editor: Richard Vadon
More shows like The Briefing Room
View all
Global News Podcast
7,913 Listeners
The Archers
1,086 Listeners
From Our Own Correspondent
376 Listeners
More or Less
863 Listeners
Newshour
1,067 Listeners
In Our Time
5,576 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,808 Listeners
6 Minute English
1,729 Listeners
The Infinite Monkey Cage
1,952 Listeners
The Bottom Line
38 Listeners
Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast
428 Listeners
Moral Maze
73 Listeners
Political Fix
149 Listeners
The Inquiry
746 Listeners
Politics from the New Statesman
141 Listeners
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
108 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
3,245 Listeners
Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government
20 Listeners
Americast
779 Listeners
The Bomb
1,010 Listeners
The Rest Is Politics
3,858 Listeners
The Rest Is Politics: Leading
851 Listeners
When It Hits the Fan
45 Listeners
Radical with Amol Rajan
48 Listeners