Nottingham City Council has become the latest local authority to effectively declare bankruptcy as it is unable to fulfil its legal obligation to balance its budget.
The state of the council’s spreadsheets has been blamed partly on mistakes of its own making – namely the collapse of an energy firm it launched back in 2020, and using funding ringfenced for housing in its general budget that then had to be replaced.
But it is far from the only authority facing such pressures, and the issuing of Section 114 notices is a story being echoed across a number of local authorities in England.
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Since 2018, six councils have effectively declared bankruptcy, including
