Some of England’s most-deprived councils to get funding boost in new deal
Some of England’s most-deprived councils will receive a funding boost under a new three-year local government deal which prioritises urban areas with high social needs at the expense of affluent places in the leafy south-east,Manchester, Birmingham, Luton, Bradford, Coventry, Derby and outer London boroughs such as Haringey and Enfield will receive big spending power increases under what ministers have described as a fairer system that will “restore pride and opportunity in left-behind places”,The housing and communities secretary, Steve Reed, said: “This is a chance to turn the page on a decade of cuts, and for local leaders to invest in getting back what has been lost – to bring back libraries, youth services, clean streets, and community hubs,”However, the settlement got a lukewarm welcome from some urban councils in the north and Midlands which said it was disappointing that “London’s suburbs” were the “biggest winners” from the review, “leaving many of the most deprived communities facing further cuts after a decade of austerity”,Leaders of county councils in English home counties and rural areas also criticised the settlement, describing it as unfair because it disproportionately benefited urban ones.
The County Councils Network accused ministers of “cherrypicking” – and predicgted it would leave many of its members in financial trouble,A group of wealthy central London authorities with relatively low council tax bills and high levels of financial reserves – and which are expected to lose out significantly under the new arrangements – will be allowed to set council tax from April above the 4,99% maximum increase,Some Reform-led councils such as Kent are net gainers under the new “fair funding” distribution formula, but it is unclear whether the boost will be sufficient to enable them to meet their political aspiration of cutting council tax bills,The 2026-27 local government finance settlement is unlikely to stem the crisis in council budgets, with increasing numbers of struggling town halls this year likely to request special financial help from ministers to balance their books.
The settlement, announced on Wednesday afternoon, gives little detail on how the government will deal with English upper-tier councils’ accumulated deficits on special educational needs services, which are forecast to reach £14bn by 2028.Six councils with historically low council tax bills will have the option of setting above-maximum rises in April: Wandsworth, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, City of London, and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.The government believes these local authorities will not automatically have to raise council tax rates above the current limit to make up for the loss in grant funding as they have high levels of reserves and can levy second home premiums on wealthy residents.Several Reform-led council have sought to avoid putting up council tax next April by the full 4.99%.
The Kent county council leader, Linden Kemkaran, revealed in a leaked internal video in October this aspiration was “the best thing that we can do to show that Reform can actually run something as big as Kent council”.She added: “Let’s not forget we are the shop window in Kent county council.People are looking at us, they are judging us every single day, every single minute of every single day.Nigel [Farage, the Reform party leader] knows that.He is super aware that we are the flagship council.
”But at other Reform-led authorities like Durham and Warwickshire, cabinet papers have revealed reduced council tax rises will have to be paid for by millions of pounds of additional cuts to already threadbare council services, and could put the viability of the council at risk.The settlement follows months of horse-trading between Whitehall and local councils.Initial modelling by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in August showed a number of Labour-run inner London councils would lose about 20% of their grant funding under the new formula.A subsequent change to the formula that acknowledged the capital’s exceptionally high housing costs and dense concentrations of child poverty significantly reduced London authorities’ exposure to the changes – but this 11th-hour shift has enraged some councils in Labour’s northern heartlands.“The decision to use housing costs as a key deprivation measure, which leaves London’s suburbs as the biggest winners from this review and many of the most-deprived communities facing further cuts after a decade of austerity, is especially disappointing,” said Sir Stephen Houghton, the chair of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities.
BP names Meg O’Neill as new CEO after incumbent ousted
BP’s board has appointed its first female chief executive in a move to revive the oil company’s fortunes, after ousting Murray Auchincloss less than two years into his role.In an unexpected leadership shake-up, Auchincloss will step down as chief executive with immediate effect, but remain in an advisory role until the end of next year.Auchincloss will be succeeded by Meg O’Neill, a former ExxonMobil executive and the head of the Australian oil company Woodside Energy. Carol Howle, BP’s head of trading, will run the firm until O’Neill takes up the top job in April.The incoming oil boss will be BP’s first female chief executive in its 116-year history, and the first woman to head any of the world’s top five oil companies
Bank of England expected to announce pre-Christmas interest rate cut today – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The wise men and women at the Bank of England could bring gifts for borrowers today, in an attempt to stave off a UK economic downturn.The BoE is widely, and confidently, expected to cut UK interest rates at noon, from 4% to 3.75%. That would take borrowing costs down to their lowest level since January 2023
From Nvidia to OpenAI, Silicon Valley woos Westminster as ex-politicians take tech firm roles
When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed.Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room.“If you want to get rich, this is where you want to be,” he declared.But his biggest party trick was a surprise guest waiting in the wings
Hackers access Pornhub’s premium users’ viewing habits and search history
Hackers have accessed the search history and viewing habits of premium users of Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular pornography websites.A gang has reportedly accessed more than 200m data records, including premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activities and locations. Pornhub is a heavily used site and says it has more than 100m daily visits globally.The hack was reportedly carried out by a western-based group called ShinyHunters, according to the website BleepingComputer, which first reported the incident. The site reported that the data included premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activity and location
England trail Australia by 158 runs: Ashes third Test, day two – as it happened
Thanks for following along as England’s fading Ashes hopes survive another day – just – at Adelaide Oval. We’ll have all the analysis shortly, and be back with the over-by-over tomorrow, but for now … here is Ali Martin’s report on day two.Nathan Lyon has returned to the side in style in Adelaide, as he picked up two wickets with his first over to help turn the game back in Australia’s favour early in England’s innings. The off-spinner dismissed Ollie Pope (3) and Ben Duckett (29) in the same over to move past Glenn McGrath and into second-place on the list of Australia Test wicket-takers, while the cartel of quicks did their thing even with Mitchell Starc less threatening than he has been in these Ashes.Pat Cummins was another to send a reminder of his importance to the side after spending time on the sidelines as the captain claimed wickets at crucial times and finished the day with 3 for 54
England’s Ashes hopes melt away as Australian bowlers share spoils in the sun
At the end of a brain-boiling second day in South Australia two things could be said with a fair degree of certainty: England were staring at the termination of their already faint Ashes hopes and players on both sides had lost faith in the Snicko technology.The match situation first, which at stumps pointed firmly towards Australia and the 3-0 lead that was ultimately loading. England had subsided to 213 for eight from 68 overs in reply to Australia’s 371 all out, trailing by 158 runs and hugely grateful to Jofra Archer, 30 not out, holding firm alongside Ben Stokes during the final hour.Stokes had been reprising his efforts from the final day in Brisbane, shrugging off an early blow to the head from Mitchell Starc and grinding his way to 45 not out from 151 balls of utter toil. But Pat Cummins was the captain glowing with authority out in the middle, walking off with figures of three for 54 on a truly stellar comeback
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