The crisis in local authorities was laid bare on Tuesday as Birmingham city council in effect declared itself bankrupt, with experts warning that others across the UK were now living “hand to mouth”.
The council’s head of finance took the dramatic decision on Tuesday to issue a section 114 notice, indicating that it did not have the resources to balance its books.
Woking, Croydon and Thurrock are among the other councils to have made similar announcements recently after botched investment projects and deep funding cuts.
But the contagion spreading to Europe’s largest local authority, which hosted last summer’s Commonwealth Games, is likely to intensify pressure on Rishi Sunak’s government over the legacy of 13 years of…
