Council tax is broken. That's not a new observation, of course: local government has been tiptoeing around a crumbling finance system, hoping it doesn't completely collapse, for as long as anyone can remember.

But it seems the national media has belatedly woken up to the plight of councils and their cashflow, prompted by a spate of section 114s and the growing realisation that it is not just fiscally decadent authorities teetering on the edge of the financial precipice.