Looming fears over finance

摘要

As we hit the budget-setting period across local government, the sector's finances are looking relatively rosy compared with this time last year. There has been lots of pain, with very little gain, but councils are on track to make a proper financial plan for the coming year.Communities secretary Eric Pickles may have used a strong-armed carrot-and-stick approach to getting local government to freeze council taxes but, barring a few obvious exceptions, it has worked.