Finance directors have been urged to make ‘timely use' of Section 114 notices to stabilise councils before they ‘go over the cliff edge'.

In the wake of the crisis at Northamptonshire CC, with financial pressures at the top of councils' worry lists and more local authorities struggling to balance their books, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), Rob Whiteman, this week intervened, warning there was a ‘heightened risk of more councils over the next four years falling into special financial measures as a result of the unrelenting pressure on budgets'.