Harry Fone: If Slough Council wants action on the cost of living, it should start by raising its game

Plus: Welsh council reserves increase during the pandemic. The complex Council Tax rebate is an utter shambles, with widespread delays.

Harry Fone: Nearly 3,000 council officials are on six figure pay packages – including rewards for failure

Plus: Pet projects in Durham, with a £50 million new HQ. Councillors in Wolverhampton increase their allowances by 17 per cent.

Harry Fone: Over half of households face Council Tax bills of over £2,000 – as waste and extravagance continue

Shetland, Wandsworth, Southampton, and Harlow are among the few local authorities bucking the trend.

‘The Treasury is taking with one hand to give away with the other’. Think tanks react to the Spring Statement

Takes from the Centre for Policy Studies, the Adam Smith Institute, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Centre for Social Justice, and more.

Harry Fone: Harlow offers proof that Council Tax bills do not have to rise

Through its “efficiency dividend” residents will receive a reduction of up to £50 this year, without any cuts to frontline services.

Harry Fone: Havering’s Council Tax hike has no justification

How can it be fair that local residents are hit financially, yet councillors’ allowances and executive remuneration have both increased?

James Roberts: Johnson and Sunak shouldn’t kid themselves. Voters are not impressed by astronomical tax bills.

Figures released by the TaxPayers’ Alliance show that average household can already expect to pay over £1.1 million in tax over their lifetimes.

Harry Fone: Cut the number of councillors, not just their allowances

Plus: Gwynedd Council should not take the day off for St David’s Day. In Warrington, the nightmare that is council energy companies returns.

James Frayne: Voters are largely supportive of the BBC licence fee being frozen – but don’t care so much about accusations of bias

Ministers will be on much surer ground if they justify change on the basis of social habits.

Harry Fone: Councils need to get back to basics on their spending priorities

From failing energy companies, to white elephant projects, many local authorities have continued to pour public money down the drain.

Autumn Budget 2021: Think tank response round-up

How have think-tanks and campaign groups responded to the Chancellor’s fiscal and economic initiatives?

James Frayne: Johnson’s headroom to raise taxes, in the wake of the new levy, has been dramatically reduced

Most obviously, this complicates their Net Zero strategy; you would have expected fiscal policy increasingly to have rebalanced towards green taxes.

Harry Fone: Vague titles and virtue signalling. The municipal “non jobs” are back in force.

Croydon has a “Cultural Transformation Engagement Programme” – and there’s more elsewhere.

Victoria Hewson: The NHS single sex accommodation policy is a dire reflection on how far gender ideology has travelled

Hospitals across England are reportedly accommodating patients on the basis of gender rather than sex.

Harry Fone: Unanswered questions about Slough’s bankruptcy

2018-19’s accounts are still unaudited. Who knew about the massive black hole in the council’s finances?