EVENT- Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Events Uncategorized

EVENT- Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count

Online Event -   Local Audit: Why Public Interest Needs to Count Weds 16th August, 7-8.30 pmPlease sign up for the event here How can we get better local government accountability from the ground up? Launch event and discussion for Research for Action’s new report Local audit in England is in a state of deep crisis. Multiple scandals of accountability have emerged, and ordinary people suffer. The current audit arrangements are failing to provide oversight and scrutiny at a time when it is particularly essential. Private interests overshadow public interests, the capacity for scrutiny and challenge at all levels has been reduced,... [continues]
Public Interest in Local Audit and Accountability
Posted inAudit and Accountability Past Projects

Public Interest in Local Audit and Accountability

Local government accountability and transparency is a thread that runs through all our work so far. Our latest project focuses on this area from two perspectives: local audit and public interest, aiming to increase accountability in local government through advocacy and action research. Building on our previous work on local audit and using the opportunity of planned legislative changes, we will influence the government’s proposals for audit reform to ensure that public interest is upheld when shaping the new regulator. We will also broaden our work on how local authorities protect public services and funds: with a focus on the... [continues]
Citizen Auditor Network
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current

Citizen Auditor Network

There is a worrying accountability vacuum in local government. Since the closure of the Audit Commission in 2015, there is neither any overarching oversight of local government audit, nor a central government body that has oversight of governance or spending irregularities across multiple authorities. Even though citizens have rights to information and accountability, these are not often respected. We have documented this in detail in our report, Democracy Denied (2021). This lack of accountability is particularly concerning given the alarming state of local government finances and further rounds of austerity cuts. During 2022 Research for Action has facilitated a citizen auditor... [continues]
REPORT – Citizen Auditors: Investigating local government’s accountability gap
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Publications Uncategorized

REPORT – Citizen Auditors: Investigating local government’s accountability gap

Across the UK, concerned individuals and local groups are holding local government to account. Research for Action has been supporting this loose network to form closer ties, meet regularly to learn from one another, provide support and compare experiences and techniques.   This publication shows ways in which those local groups and individuals are scrutinising their local authorities, challenging poor governance and decisions they believe are not in the public interest. Citizen auditors are working on a wide range of issues relating to council spending, but also on challenging poor governance. In practice, the work involves attending council meetings and scrutinising... [continues]
Reflection of tall London buildings in window
Posted inAudit and Accountability Publications Uncategorized

REPORT: Rethinking local audit and accountability

There is a deep democratic deficit in local government. The UK is one of the most centralised countries in the world. Turnout in local elections is low. In many councils there is no effective opposition, further weakening accountability. This is no accident, rather a result of concentrated efforts by the central government to centralise power and undermine the public sector functions of local government.  This democratic deficit is further reinforced by a lack of oversight. Our previous report, ‘Democracy Denied: Audit and accountability failure in local government’ documented the way current local government audit arrangements contribute to a deficit in... [continues]
REPORT: Democracy Denied: Audit and accountability failure in local government
Posted inAudit and Accountability Publications

REPORT: Democracy Denied: Audit and accountability failure in local government

Decades of funding cuts, outsourcing and commercialisation have driven local government to the brink of collapse. Scrutiny is more important than ever, yet our research shows that local authorities and their auditors actively prevent residents from exercising their rights to hold councils to account over spending decisions. Research for Action’s new report presents evidence of 155 citizen experiences of using the Local Audit and Accountability Act to scrutinise local government finances. It demonstrates serious accountability gaps, reveals the significant role played by private auditors in disempowering residents, and shows a concerning lack of accountability on the part of local authorities.... [continues]
EVENT: Building local solidarity and horizontal power – 26 May
Posted inAudit and Accountability Events Uncategorized

EVENT: Building local solidarity and horizontal power – 26 May

26 May 2-4pm, register here. How can we as communities and social movements reimagine and reclaim our cities, towns and villages? For many of us, the local elections in May 2021 again provided little chance to change things. Local government has been decimated by successive legislative changes and austerity. Westminster politics provides little hope, with the biggest attack on our civil rights in decades underway and Covid having shown us the consequences of inequality like never before. Yet the pandemic has made us focus on our neighbourhoods. We have checked in on each other, shared food and started mutual aid... [continues]
Share your experience of using the Local Audit and Accountability Act
Posted inAudit and Accountability

Share your experience of using the Local Audit and Accountability Act

Research for Action is investigating the effectiveness of the Local Audit and Accountability Act in relation to the rights it grants the public to: inspect council financial accounts ask a question to the auditor on the accounts object to items of the accounts We would like to base our evidence on the experience of as many people as possible who used the Act. Responses will inform a report we will publish in 2020.If you have used one or more of these rights we would value your responses to our questionnaire. All responses will be made anonymous and we will ensure... [continues]