The Local Government Association (LGA) has missed its target to halve the number of councils that have not had a corporate peer challenge, its latest progress report has revealed.

Under the terms of its central government funding, the LGA agreed to cut the number of councils without a peer review from 112 to 56.

A report produced for its improvement board meeting last week claimed it had made ‘very good progress' but missed its target.

Some 63 councils have yet to have a corporate peer review.

The target is one of a raft of indicators used to measure the effectiveness of the Government's ‘top slice' funding to the LGA – which was £20m for 2018/19.

According to the report, the LGA met almost all the targets, including delivering 145 per reviews, 71 of which were corporate or finance, against a target of 110 and 70 respectively.

The LGA also provided 12 councils with ‘bespoke support' – assisting the most poorly performing councils at risk of Government intervention – against a target of 10.

In all, the LGA report suggested it delivered 50 targets, failing on two: halving the number of councils without a corporate peer challenge and publishing a workforce strategy by September 2018.

Chair of the LGA innovation and improvement board, Cllr Peter Fleming, said: ‘The agreement with MHCLG [Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] for 2018/19 contained 52 ambitious and stretching targets and the funding for the year was £1m less than the previous year.

‘The full achievement of 50 out of 52 of these targets is a significant achievement. 

'Of the two targets missed, one was completed but slightly late and the other target was only narrowly missed. 

'For many of the targets, the LGA overachieved.'

Cllr Fleming also claimed the report highlighted support for sector-led improvement, with more than 95% of leaders and chief executive saying it had a positive impact on their councils.

A MHCLG spokeswoman said: 'We will consider the LGA's 2018/19 progress report as part of our regular monitoring with the Improvement and Development Agency.'