A finance expert has warned abolition of the Audit Commission highlights the need for the CIPFA/SOLACE corporate governance code to be made mandatory – to reinforce appropriate standards of public accountability by local authorities.

David Adams, former chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and Harrow LBC, told The MJ the public interest was being poorly served by failing to make it mandatory for councils to ‘comply or explain' when they decided whether or not to appoint finance chiefs as key members of council leadership teams.