Scrutiny
22 Sep 2025
Kerry Booth: Why Fair Funding Matters for Rural Councils
Kerry Booth, Chief Executive of the Rural Services Network, was recently invited to contribute a blog reflecting on the funding challenges faced by rural councils. We are pleased to share...
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04 Aug 2025
Living in Rural England? Help Inform Future Utility Decisions
The Rural Services Network is encouraging rural residents to take part in important new research from Rural England CIC – and to help share it across their communities before the...
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16 Jun 2025
Rural Housing Emergency
Affordable Housing Need 50% Greater in Rural Areas, Report Reveals England’s rural communities are experiencing an affordable housing crisis of unprecedented scale, with the need for affordable homes is more...
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09 Jun 2025
NAO Highlights Weaknesses in Developer Contributions System
A recent report from the National Audit Office (NAO) highlights significant weaknesses in the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government’s (MHCLG) developer contributions system in England — a key...
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09 Jun 2025
Spending Review: £1bn Call to Tackle Bus Service Gaps
Campaign for Better Transport is calling for an additional £1 billion a year for buses as its analysis reveals four out of every ten wards in England and Wales (3,003...
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14 Oct 2024
Benefits Processing
The Benefits Processing analysis within the Performance Benchmarking section on the RSN website has now been updated to Quarter 4 2023/24. The speed of processing is a measure of the...
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04 Oct 2024
Council Tax Collection Rate
These analyses present National Statistics on the collection rates of council tax and non-domestic rates by local authorities. The in-year collection rate is the amount of council tax (or non-domestic...
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27 Sep 2024
Planning Turnaround
Development Management – Planning Analysis This development management analysis includes consideration of turnaround times for processing planning applications. These traditional performance measures, long collected by the Government to measure success...
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22 Apr 2024
Recycling and Waste Management
Local Authorities are responsible for the collection of household waste. They are also required to provide a recycling service. LATEST RSN ANALYSIS: 2022/23 Residual Household Waste Per Household Analysis user...
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27 Nov 2023
Autumn Statement 2023: What does it mean for rural?
It’s been nearly a week since the Chancellor delivered his Autumn Statement and RSN Chief Executive Kerry Booth and her team have been digesting what it means for rural communities...
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