88. Residents and taxpayers have the right to know if there are serious problems with their local authority. In 2017-18, local government and local NHS bodies spent about £64 million on external audit. Yet information is not as accessible as it should be.99
89. Local authorities have an overall good track record of robust governance, this is becoming increasing critical. This is because, in response to increasing demand and continued funding pressures, local authorities are taking on greater levels of risk as they seek out ever more innovative ways to manage their limited resources.100
90. In some authorities, local governance is under strain. We are worried that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has no way of pinpointing the at-risk local authorities to ensure that problems are caught earlier.101 The Department's role is even more important, now that there is no longer a central assessment of value for money.102 There is also a complete lack of transparency over its informal interventions in local authorities with financial or governance problems. For example, we were dismayed to hear that the scale of Northamptonshire County Council's recent problems was an 'open secret', yet not something the council taxpayers of Northamptonshire were aware of.103
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99 Committee of Public Accounts, Auditing local government, Eighty-Fifth Report of Session 2017-19, HC 1738, 15 March 2019, p 3, p 4
100 Committee of Public Accounts, Local Government Governance and Accountability, Ninety-Seventh Report of Session 2017-19, HC 2077, 15 May 2019, p 3
101 Ibid, conclusion 3, p 6
102 Ibid, summary, p 3
103 Ibid, conclusion 5, p 7