Welcome to Council Watch

Local authority journalism has been hollowing out for years. Reporters who once covered town, city and county halls have been cut, consolidated, or moved on

Somewhere in Britain right now, a council is making a decision that will affect your life. A planning application is being waved through. A contract is being awarded. A senior officer is being paid off quietly. A budget is being cut in a way nobody will notice until it is too late.

Most of it will go unreported.

Local authority journalism has been hollowing out for years. Reporters who once covered town, city and county halls have been cut, consolidated, or moved on to easier beats. The result is that the people running your council, spending your money, and shaping your streets are largely operating without scrutiny.

That is what Council Watch is here to change.

We will cover local authorities and nothing else. We will investigate financial misdeeds and procurement failures. We will use data to hold councils to account on their own numbers. We will report regularly on the decisions and people that matter. We are independent, and we will publish what we find.

This is a particularly important moment to be doing this. Councils across Britain are going through the biggest reorganisation in fifty years. New authorities are being created, old ones abolished, and significant power is shifting around. We will be watching.

We will be introducing our team very soon. In the meantime, if you have a tip, a document, or a story you think we should be looking at, get in touch.

Welcome aboard.

The Council Watch Team