The next government must give local leaders greater economic powers and financial control over regeneration to boost housebuilding and long-term local economic growth, the Localis think tank has said.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, has issued statutory guidance on best value standards and interventions under section 26 of the Local Government Act 1999, aimed at providing greater clarity to the sector in England on how to fulfil the best value duty.

National Park Authorities (NPAs) in Wales should improve on a number of areas including member officer relations, as well as the appointment and the diversity of members, Audit Wales has said.

The London Borough of Bexley has been issued with an improvement notice by the Department for Education (DfE) following an Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) Area SEND Inspection.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has rebuffed a parliamentary committee’s call to instruct the National Audit Office to investigate the Teesside Freeport, Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) and the South Tees Development Corporation.

The Local Government Association (LGA), the Electoral Commission and the Jo Cox Foundation have made a joint call for no abuse towards candidates during the upcoming local elections.

External auditors have told Teignbridge District Council for the second year running that it needs to improve relationships between its members and officers.

Audit Wales has unveiled plans to improve the timeliness of its performance audit work at NHS and local government bodies and to restore the auditing of accounts of the 800 public bodies across Wales to pre-pandemic timescales over the next few years.

A decision by the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) in 2022 to strike out proceedings concerning a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted to Northumberland County Council involved an error in a point of law and should be remitted for a rehearing, an Upper Tribunal judge has decided.

More than a quarter of the public (26%) wish to have more of a say in how decisions are taken in their local areas, a survey from the LGiU has suggested.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has issued updated statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny, to “take account of deeper devolution and the creation of combined county authorities through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023”.

A borough council was forced to apply to the High Court for judicial review after discovering that the versions of two proposed neighbourhood plans it published ahead of referendums were materially incorrect, it has emerged.

The guidelines for productivity plans, which the Government asked councils to produce when it announced the Local Government Finance Settlement, have been revealed.

An investigation by Newport City Council has found that all 14 of its town and community councils are failing to publish a compliant Register of Interests (RoI) on their websites.

An investigation into £500,000 worth of payments made by Essex County Council for social media campaigns has been unable to find what the selection process was like for awarding the work or whether there was a competitive process involved.

The Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO) has voiced support for LLG, CIPFA and SOLACE's proposed Code of Practice on Good Governance for Statutory Officers and has called for the monitoring officer role to be renamed in legislation 'Chief Governance Officer'.

The Economic Activity of Public Bodies Bill gives “significant concerns about the effects the current drafting will have on the operation of the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS)”, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.

The Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Clive Betts MP, has written to the Government about its lack of response to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's Triennial Review, which was published more than two years ago.

James Goudie KC will no longer conduct an independent review into social media posts made by an officer at the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales after concerns were voiced about the barrister's ties to the Labour party.

The chief executive of CIPFA, Rob Whiteman, has said Government plans for Oflog will leave the new body with a "limited scope" and has suggested the regulator would be better placed as system leader for local government audit.

Cambridgeshire County Council must release the names of individuals in a public-facing role, including councillors and officials, who submitted consultation responses on behalf of stakeholder groups, despite a promise in the consultation document that said the local authority would not publish any personal details unless specifically indicated, the First Tier Tribunal has ruled.

The Chief Executive of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Sharon Kemp, has been selected as the third commissioner to be appointed to Nottingham City Council.

A large-scale landlord in Kent, Fergus Wilson, has been found in contempt of court after breaching a final injunction order that sought to stop him from harassing staff at Ashford Borough Council.

Liverpool City Council must reveal the identities of two councillors who have received a court summons over council tax arrears, a decision notice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has concluded.

Audit firm Grant Thornton must pay a £40,000 penalty after the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) found failures in its audit of an unnamed local authority’s pension fund.

The Government has launched a consultation on the Locally-led Urban Development Corporation (LUDC) model.

An email sent by Wiltshire Council's chief executive to union members ahead of a vote on industrial action was unlawful as it sought to deter members from voting in favour of a strike, an Employment Tribunal has found.

The Government has this week (8 April) launched a consultation on clarifying the law to encourage organisations to apologise to those who have been wronged.

The terms of an independent investigation into a £72m pension deal struck by Plymouth City Council that was "not in line with normal accounting practice" have been revealed.

Police are investigating an incident involving "verbal threats" made at an Arun District Council planning committee meeting last month.