Outgoing LGA chair Baroness Margaret Eaton has called upon recalcitrant Whitehall departments to follow the majority of local authorities in publishing details of all spending higher than £500.

Under transparency guidelines established last year by Francis Maude, Government departments are obliged to publish all spending above £25,000. Communities secretary Eric Pickles set councils a far lower threshold, demanding publication of all spending in excess of £500, an edict which 375 local authorities, with the singular exception of Nottingham City Council, have complied with.