Great Central Gazette wins grant funding for general election coverage

Over the last month, all eyes have been on the council as City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby wrote to the government to explain Leicester City Council's worsening financial situation. The council warned it is "rapidly running out of options" to cut costs. Bankruptcy could become inevitable next year, leaving essential services like adult social care and children's services in the lurch. Off the back of this, the Great Central Gazette worked with Research for Action on an investigation into transparency around the council's finances – revealing that they have yet to audit their accounts for 2022-23. The deadline for audited accounts was 30 September. We unpick the local audit crisis in the story below.

Local audit crisis deepens after council bankruptcy warning

Urgent reforms are needed for local authority audits as Leicester City Council faces financial turmoil, risking bankruptcy.

Great Central GazetteRhys Everquill

In more positive news, The Gazette is pleased to announce Your Co-op (also known as Midcounties Co-op) – which runs the likes of Co-op Energy and Co-op Broadband – is supporting our general election coverage next year with £3,263.80. This funding will help us pay for staff time, attend the count, and run a hustings event. Also, Megan Lupton, our Communications Coordinator, recently took part in the DMUWorks Pitch2Win competition, where she had to present our business case to a live audience. As runner-up, De Montfort University awarded us £250, which, while small, could pay for two new feature articles!