THE government is “flying blind” on struggling council finances amid an unprecedented local audit crisis, the public accounts committee (PAC) has warned.

A new PAC report published today raises concerns that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is unable to effectively monitor worsening local authority finances.

It said that this is due to a local audit crisis whereby only 10 per cent of 426 English local authorities submitted reliable data for 2022/23, which led to the National Audit Office being unable to sign off the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) for that year for the first time ever.