The situation has been exacerbated by the backlog of uncompleted local government audits which need to be completed by a backstop date of 13 December set by government.

The National Audit Office (NAO) reported that out of the 426 local councils in England, just 43 (10%) submitted ‘reliable data’ to the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA).

This meant that the NAO was ‘unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence upon which to form an opinion’.

Gareth Davies, head of NAO said: ‘It is clearly not acceptable that delays in audited accounts for English local authorities have made it impossible for me to provide assurance on the Whole of Government Accounts for 2022-23.

‘It is essential that the steps being taken by government to restore timely and robust local authority audited accounts are effective.’

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