Briefings and responses

The Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill legislates to ensure that COVID-19 cannot be taken as a cause of material changes of circumstances for business rates and makes provision in connection with the disqualification of directors of companies that are dissolved without becoming insolvent. We welcome the provisions in in the Bill.

Overall, we have significant concerns with the proposed changes to the Prudential Code and these are outlined in our response to the consultation on that. We are equally concerned at how those changes interact with and impact on the Treasury Management Code. In particular we are concerned that activity that is currently seen as good practice in Treasury Management will be restricted to the detriment of councils’ finances.

The current issues with local audit are complex and have a number of causes including a limited number of firms within the market and a shortage of suitably qualified auditors working for those firms. This situation has been made worse by tighter and stricter regulation of auditors following audit scandals in the private sector and more recently by the difficulty of auditing under COVID restrictions.

The current Household Support Fund (HSF), which contributed £840 million to English councils’ provision of local welfare support in 2023/24, is set to end on 31 March 2024.