By RD on Thursday, 23 September 2021
Category: News

NALC highlights the growth of super councils in government consultation

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC), in its response to the government's consultation on local audits, has highlighted the financial growth of the largest 72 super councils in England.

NALC advised the government that as the financial spend increases of super councils in coming years, it should consider raising the minimum threshold for smaller authorities to enter the entire category one audit regime in future.

NALC has offered to work with the government to reach an appropriate figure and encouraged the government to work with Salisbury City Council to assess what local (parish and town) councils entering this new audit category could mean.

NALC also argued that only those parish meetings currently raising a precept should be subject to the 2014 audit regulations. Others that have not precepted for more than three years should be subject to a community governance review and possibly replaced by elected local councils.

The government consulted on the measures it intends to implement following the Redmond Review into local government audit two years ago.

Read the full response