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Publication Devolution Machinery of government Public finances 20 March, 2025

Evidence submission: MHCLG consultation on local audit reform

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Local authorities spend more than £100 billion every year. Independent scrutiny helps to ensure that this spending is efficient, effective and legal.

And yet the local audit system is failing. Fragmented leadership, severe workforce shortages and increasingly complex requirements have led to a situation where, in 2022/23, only one per cent of local bodies published audited accounts on time.

To fix the local audit system, the Government have introduced a series of backstop dates and launched a consultation on local audit reform.

This submission to that consultation covers four key areas:

  • The need for a single body responsible for the local audit system
  • The appropriate remit of this single body
  • The excessive complexity of accounts
  • The potential benefits of local public accounts committees