大象传媒

It鈥檚 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 拢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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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