Dan Bates: councils are more than the sum of their debt

Dan Bates from LG Improve outlines that borrowing debt being used as an indicator of councils’ financial health can be ‘misleading’, as there isn’t just one factor that accesses whether an authority is ‘good or bad’.

Please subscribe or upgrade your membership. To continue reading this article please sign in below or subscribe to our site.

Debt should not be used alone as an indicator of a council’s financial health, although it is an important factor. We must understand debt

Dan Bates: councils are more than the sum of their debt

More from Dan Bates

Dan Bates: the numbers game of creating new unitaries

MyCouncil: 20% rise in London borrowing over two years

MyCouncil major update: using the financial insight platform

Reports

LGPS Private Markets Forum 2026

Plan to replace Scottish councils with regional authorities

Spelthorne to shed further assets ahead of LGR

Will LGR hiatus herald ‘messy’ future for devolution?

Harness but don’t copy Manchesterism to make devolution work

More Reform-led councils consider LAPFF exit

More from Audit

Accounting code: decluttered but still complex?

The 151er podcast episode 3 - no small accounts

Accounts show growing divide in financial health of councils

Birmingham publishes three years of accounts

Audit backlog eases as 75% of councils file on time

Is Reform’s DOGE a threat to local government audit?

Government’s 16 commitments and £49m funding designed to ‘fix the broken audit system’

More from Audit

Local audit crisis ‘undermining’ financial oversight

Audit: over 60 councils miss deadline as backlog persists

Do LAO reforms tackle the roots of the crisis?

More from Dan Bates

Reports

Most read in Audit

More from Audit

More from Audit