This unexpected manoeuvre could remove a sizeable chunk of tax receipts from local government coffers and widen the gulf between the south and north

Specialist black and minority ethnic domestic violence services are already under strain. Without ringfenced funding, they will be forced to close

It’s bad enough that the secretary of state used his position to hammer Enfield council on efficiency, but let’s not forget the damage caused by welfare reform

With Norfolk county council accused of breaching the Care Act, alarm bells will be ringing at cash-strapped councils across the country

Some 63% of councils in England and Wales cut bus funding this year, while 44% withdrew services. Even Cameron’s relations have registered the budget scythe

Working conditions have deteriorated since 2008 in the capital, where pay inequality is greater than anywhere else. But it doesn’t have to be this way

People in need deserve better than a few patchy pilot schemes. It’s time to fill the gaps in our over-stretched police and mental health services

I still have my first library card from when I was a girl from a poor family in west Belfast. Every time I hear of a library closure it hits a nerve

Despite cuts to the youth justice system and reports of abuse by G4S staff, young people in prisons remain shockingly low on the empathy scale

Theresa May has warned police chiefs of challenges ahead, as if there weren’t enough already from struggling mental health, social care and probation services

Investment in digital directly improves services such as social care, but you wouldn’t know it given George Osborne’s focus on central government

Slicing money out of local prevention services is ‘economically nonsensical’, completely undermining the pledge to pump billions into the NHS

The LGA’s #OurDay campaign is a reminder of our councils’ resilience – but the spending review may yet impose a level of austerity few will be able to cope with

As predicted five years ago, hard-won gains on gender equality evaporate all too quickly in a climate of cuts