The maximum speed limit on four busy roads in Cardiff will be changed back to 30mph from 20mph.

A review of the Welsh government’s 20mph speed limit was announced last year following a public backlash.

The 20mph speed limit, covering 37% of the Welsh road network, was brought in by the Welsh government in September 2023.

Cardiff council said the proposed changes should help ease congestion on main roads in and out of the city.

The local authority listened to views of residents, businesses and transport companies before making its decision.

More stretches of road are expected to revert to 30mph, especially those away from built-up areas.

Last month, it was announced that 50 stretches of road in Wrexham would revert to 30mph.

The council reviewed 192 roads, but many requests were not eligible due to various factors, including road characteristics and location.

The affected routes include sections of Newport Road, Ocean Way, Hadfield Road, and a small part of Western Avenue.

Cardiff council asked the public, bus companies, local councillors, MPs, Senedd members, and other city stakeholders on which roads should revert to 30mph and their reasons why.

It received 933 requests to revert the speed limit across 232 roads.

However, 40 roads were disqualified due to not having a 20mph limit or being outside Cardiff, and of the 192 roads reviewed, 178 received fewer than 10 requests.

Excalibur Drive, in north Cardiff received the most requests – 207 from 26 residents, but it did not qualify, as it surrounds numerous properties and community facilities.

The roads that will revert back to 30mph are:

• Newport Road: All of Newport Road – except for a section of carriageway which runs outside St Illtyd’s Catholic School.
• Western Avenue: A small section of this road west of the Taff River Bridge and to the junction with Cardiff Road/Llandaff Road.
• Ocean Way: From its junction with Beignon Close to Rover Way
• Hadfield Road: Between the junction with Leckwith Road and Penarth Road.

Lisa Lewis, who lives in Thornhill, said she agreed with 20mph limits in areas with houses and schools.

“I’m happy that it’s 20[mph] when I’m walking the dog, for sure.”

Laura Preddy, who lives near Excalibur Drive said the 20mph limits had been “very frustrating”.

She added: “I have been caught speeding since the change, which is frustrating.

“There are no houses directly along the road and it gets quite busy, and it gets backed up the more slowly the traffic is going.”

Mr De’Ath added that the 20mph policy reduces traffic-related casualties and encourages walking and cycling, and said the speed limit will remain in areas with high pedestrian and cyclist activity unless evidence proved higher speeds were safe.

“This approach balances the need for efficient traffic flow with the safety and well-being of all road users,” he said.

The selected roads will return to 30mph following a legally required Traffic Regulation Process.

Work is under way to make all men in Poland undergo military training, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

In a speech to the Polish parliament, Tusk said the government aimed to give full details in the coming months.

Efforts are being made to “prepare large-scale military training for every adult male in Poland,” he told the Sejm.

“We will try to have a model ready by the end of this year so that every adult male in Poland is trained in the event of war, so that this reserve is comparable and adequate to the potential threats.”

Tusk said the Ukrainian army has 800,000 soldiers, whilst Russia has around 1.3 million and he wants to increase the size of the Polish army, including reservists, to 500,000 from around 200,000 now.

“We’re talking about the need to have an army of half a million in Poland, including the reservists,” he said.

“It seems if we organize things wisely, and I’m talking constantly with the Minister of Defence, we will have to use several courses of action. That means the reservists, but also intensive training to make those who do not go into the army fully-fledged and competent soldiers during a conflict,” he added.

Tusk said women may also undergo military training, but “war, is still to a greater extent the domain of men”.

Poland is already planning to spend 4.7% of its economic output on defence this year, the highest proportion in the Nato alliance.

Tusk told parliament that spending should increase to 5% of GDP.

Earlier, President Duda proposed amending the constitution to make defence spending at a level of 4% of GDP compulsory

The prime minister also said he supports Poland withdrawing from the Ottawa convention that bans the use of antipersonnel landmines, and also possibly from the Dublin convention that bans the use of cluster munitions.

Poland has ramped up defence spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.

It has signed arms contracts worth around $20bn (£15.5bn) with the United States to buy 250 M1A2 Abrams battle tanks, 32 F-35 jets, 96 Apache helicopters, Javelin missiles, and artillery rocket systems.

Warsaw has also signed contracts with South Korea to purchase K2 tanks and FA-50 light combat aircraft.

There is growing anxiety among Poles about their future security following US President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend military supplies to Ukraine. Most Poles believe supporting Ukraine is in their own security interests.

Mirosław Kaznowski, the deputy mayor of the town Milanówek just outside Warsaw, told BBC News this week that a friend of his has decided to invest in a start-up to build low-cost underground bomb shelters for businesses and homes.

His friend said interest was high, he added.

Three Bulgarian nationals have been found guilty of spying for Russia in the UK.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, all from London, were part of a group of Bulgarians who spied between 2020 and 2023.

The cell undertook elaborate surveillance on people and places targeted by Russia, including investigative journalists and a US military base in Germany, with members crisscrossing Europe from their base in the UK.

Their plans were laid out in thousands of messages exchanged between the cell’s leaders and recovered by police.

The messages included plots to kidnap and kill some of the group’s targets as well as plans to ensnare them in so-called honeytraps.

The trio were convicted of conspiracy to spy, while Ivanova was also convicted of possessing multiple false identity documents..

Fellow Bulgarians Orlin Roussev, 47, from Great Yarmouth, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, from London, had previously admitted conspiracy to spy, while a sixth defendant, Ivan Stoyanov, 34, also admitted spying before the trial and his conviction can now be reported for the first time.

Key targets were investigative journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, whose work includes exposing Russia’s role in the nerve agent attacks on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.

During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the spy cell was “sophisticated in their methodology; carrying out surveillance activity of individuals and places; manufacturing and using false identities and deploying advanced technology to acquire information”.

Roussev’s espionage base was a seaside guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, which police say contained a “treasure trove” of spying gadgets and equipment, including cameras hidden in ties, a camera hidden in a fake rock, and glasses containing recording equipment.

The police investigation received 221 mobile phones, 495 sim cards, 11 drones, and devices allowing data to be extracted from phones and eavesdropping on wi-fi activity.

The spy cell worked under the direction of Roussev, who in turn received instructions from Jan Marsalek.

The Austrian national, who is wanted in Germany for his alleged fraud linked to the financial services company Wirecard, was described by prosecutors as an “intermediary for the Russian intelligence services”.

Roussev and Marsalek met a decade ago, with Roussev subsequently recruited as a spy. He then recruited other Bulgarians to undertake espionage operations.

The spy cell had other jobs – Gaberova was a beautician, Ivanchev a painter and decorator, Roussev was at one stage the chief technology officer for a city of London financial firm.

Ivan Stoyanov worked as a medical courier, but also fought in mixed martial arts ffights using the nickname “The Destroyer”.

Dzhambazov and Ivanova lived together as a couple and worked in healthcare jobs, but also ran a Bulgarian community organisation that provided courses on “British values”.

But Dzhambazov was also in a relationship with Gaberova – they were found in bed together when police made arrests – and Ivanchev had separately been in a relationship with her in the past.

During their trial, Ivanova and Gaberova admitted undertaking surveillance operations but denied knowing it was for the benefit of Russia.

Ivanchev did not give evidence during the trial but outlined a similar position during police interviews after being arrested. He was arrested a year after the other five defendants and told police he had several conversations with MI5.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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The MP behind a bill campaigners hoped would ban smart phones in schools has admitted to watering down his proposals to gain government support.

Josh MacAlister told BBC News he was now “focused on the areas where we can get government support so that we actually get some action in this area”.

MacAlister, the Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, had earlier said the legislation would give headteachers legal backing to make schools mobile free.

The new version of the so-called safer phones bill instead calls for further research, as well as advice for parents on smart phone and social media use by children.

The private member’s bill will be debated by MPs on Friday when it has its second reading in the House of Commons.

It has been watered down since it was first proposed in October last year. It originally looked to ban smartphones in schools and ban addictive social media algorithms, but will now commit the government to researching the issue further rather than immediate change.

When asked about changes made to his planned legislation, MacAlister, a former teacher, said he had “been working really closely with the government” to put forward “practical measures”, and was “optimistic” ministers would support it.

Private members’ bills rarely make it into law without government backing but they are an opportunity for backbenchers to raise an issue’s profile.

There have been growing calls to restrict children’s smartphone use, including local schools combining to revise their phone policies and parent groups joining forces to delay giving their child a smartphone.

However, some of those in favour of smartphones say they provide opportunities for child development, including socialising, and there is little evidence supporting restrictions of devices in schools.

MacAlister said the proposal to ban smart phones in schools was dropped from the bill after the government signalled it “was not something they were going to consider”.

The bill in October 2024 originally included proposals for:

• a legal requirement for all schools to be mobile-free zones
• the age online companies can receive data consent from children without permission from parents to be raised from 13 to 16
• Ofcom’s powers to be strengthened so it can enforce a code of conduct to prevent children being exposed to apps and services “addictive by design”
• further regulation of the design, supply, marketing and use of mobile phones by under-16s, if needed

Those proposals have been dropped, and the bill is now calling for:

• chief medical officers to put out guidance on the use of smartphones and social media use by children within 12 months
• the education secretary to come up with a plan for research into the impact of use of social media on children within 12 months
• the government to come back within a year to say whether it will raise the digital age of consent from 13 to 16 – meaning online companies could not receive children’s data without parental permission until that age

Joe Ryrie, leader of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, said the final provisions in the bill were “nowhere near enough”.

The Liberal Democrats accused the government of making “ponderous progress” on the issue, and suggested ministers had succeed in pushing for the bill to be “watered down”.

MacAlister said he “wanted this campaign to be a campaign of persuasion to put this issue right at the centre of the national debate and bring that debate into Parliament”.

He added: “I think what we’ll see in the government’s response to the bill is that they’re prepared to take some positive steps forward on this issue and that they’re committed to further action and I think that’s really positive.”

Friday’s debate in the Commons comes as a report suggested the majority of young people support the idea of placing stricter rules on social media, with more than 60% saying they believe it does more harm than good.

The study, from think tank The New Britain Project and polling firm More in Common surveyed more than 1,600 people aged 16 to 24.

It found that three-quarters said stronger rules were needed to protect young people from social media harms, and social media was named as the most negative influence on teens’ mental health.

Former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson and city politician Derek Hatton have been charged with bribery and misconduct relating to council contracts, along with 10 others, police have said.

The charges come after a Merseyside Police probe, Operation Aloft, focused on a number of property developers.

Mr Anderson and Mr Hatton were first arrested in 2020 as part of an investigation into the awarding of building contracts.

Following his arrest, Mr Anderson said he would “continue to fight to demonstrate that I am innocent of any wrongdoing”.

Merseyside Police said 12 individuals had been charged following an investigation connected to the awarding of commercial and business contracts from Liverpool City Council between 2010 and 2020.

Those charged are:

• Former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson, 67, of Knotty Ash, charged with with one count of bribery, one count of misconduct in a public office and one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office
• Derek Hatton, 77, of Aigburth, charged with one count of bribery and one count of counsel or procure misconduct in a public office
• Former Liverpool City Council director Nicholas Kavanagh, 56, of Mossley Hill, charged with two counts of bribery
• Former Assistant Director at Liverpool City Council, Andrew Barr, 51, of Ainsdale, charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and one count of bribery
• David Anderson, 37, of Wavertree, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office
• Phillipa Cook, 49, of Mossley Hill, charged with two counts of bribery
• Alex Croft, 29, of Aughton, Lancashire, charged with one count of bribery
• Julian Flanagan, 53, of Crosby charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery
• Paul Flanagan, 61, of Knowsley Village, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery
• Sonjia Hatton, 49, of Aigburth, charged with one count of misconduct in a public office
• Adam McLean, 54, of Woolton, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery
• James Shalliker, 38, of Downholland, Lancashire, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery

They will all appear at Preston Magistrates’ Court on 28 March.

Robin Weyell, deputy chief crown prosecutor said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has reviewed a full file of evidence from Merseyside Police and has authorised the investigation team to charge 12 people with 12 offences related to bribery and misconduct in public office.”

He said criminal proceedings were now active and it was “extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings”.

Poundland’s owner has said it is considering putting the chain up for sale after warning tax changes coming in April will put more pressure on the business.

The discount chain has 825 UK stores but sales were down this January and February, its Polish owner Pepco Group said.

A rise in employer National Insurance (NI) contributions announced in the Budget start in April and Pepco says these will “add further pressure” to Poundland’s costs.

A host of High Street brands have warned of shop closures, job losses and price rises as a result of rising costs, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended the NI increase as “the right decisions in the national interest”.

Pepco Group said Poundland was “operating in an increasingly challenging UK retail landscape that is only intensifying”.

“From April 2025, the UK government’s additional tax changes announced in the Budget will also add further pressure to Poundland’s cost base,” it added.

Retailers have been among the most vocal of businesses criticising the NI increase and the rise in the minimum wage, which will both happen in April.

Tesco, Amazon, Greggs, Next and dozens of other chains last year wrote to the Treasury urging it reconsider some of the Budget measures.

The government has defended the tax rise as necessary to avoid cuts to public services.

The Pepco Group, which owns Pepco bargain stores in Poland, is making a profit so is looking at ways to separate itself from Poundland “including a potential sale,” it said.

As part of the plans, former Poundland managing director Barry Williams, who took over as managing director of Pepco in September 2023, will return to his Poundland role.

Stephan Borchert, chief executive of Pepco Group, told Reuters there are “definitely interested parties for this business” and said he was confident Poundland’s future would be decided by September this year.

“Definitely we’re looking at all options but a sale is possibly a very good option since we believe that the business will do better with a new owner,” he said.

People have described a scene of “sheer panic” as a car crashed through a fence and on to a sports pitch, killing a child and injuring another.

The pair were struck at Kendal rugby club at about 17:00 GMT on Wednesday, Cumbria Police said.

Eyewitness Scott Denney said it “all happened very fast”, adding: “Just as we got on to the pitch, a car came through the barriers at the top and then landed on the pitch.”

A male driver, who is aged in his 40s, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr Denney, whose son attends the GT7 Football Academy which holds training sessions at the rugby club, said he had “no idea” how the car got on to the field.

“It was just sheer panic. It was just not very nice at all.

“The children were obviously scared but the coaches dealt with it really, really well.”

He said staff got the children off the field and out of view of the crash site, and added: “Last night there was a lot of families here that pulled together to give support to the mum and dad and friends of the [victims].”

Tim Farron, the MP for the area, said news of the crash was “utterly devastating”.

“There was this shared sense of utter shock and horror, the whole town is utterly, utterly devastated by this,” he said.

A police presence remained at the rugby club into the night.

The Reverend Canon Shanthi Thompson, from Kendal Parish Church, said a moment of silence was held after its Ash Wednesday service “because it’s so hard to find the words to say at a time like this”.

“Kendal is a very close community and many, many people will have links to the rugby club and people will know the children involved,” she told BBC Radio Cumbria.

At the scene

Jennie Dennett, BBC Radio Cumbria

The sunrise here is lighting the frosty pitch and the very wrong sight of two buckled fence panels that are pitchside, opposite the clubhouse car park.

The green panels have bent right over in front of the drop down to the pitch and there is blue and white police tape across the gap in the fence.

It’s an indication of the awful consequences of yesterday’s crash.

Nine major banks and building societies operating in the UK accumulated at least 803 hours – the equivalent of 33 days – of tech outages in the past two years, figures published by a group of MPs show.

The Treasury Committee – which has been investigating the impact of banking IT failures – compelled Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, Santander, NatWest, Danske Bank, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank to provide the data.

It does not include the Barclays outage in January or the Lloyds outage last week – two incidents which occurred on pay day for many people, and left customers unable to pay their staff and bills.

The report finds Barclays could now face compensation payments of £12.5m.

“For families and individuals living pay cheque to pay cheque, losing access to banking services on payday can be a terrifying experience,” said Dame Meg Hillier, the committee’s chair.

“The fact there has been enough outages to fill a whole month within the last two years shows customers’ frustrations are completely valid,” she added.

Speaking on the Today programme, on BBC Radio Four, she said she hoped putting the data in the public domain would encourage banks and the regulator to see if there was any more that could be done to reduce the disruption.

“This once again highlights that the traditional banking sector hasn’t kept pace with the investment needed to modernise its infrastructure,” said Patrick Burgess of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

The Treasury Committee data looked at IT failures which affected millions of customers between January, 2023 and February this year. They found there had been 158 incidents.

While the data does not include the Barclays outage in January, which left one family without a home, the bank did confirm to the committee that over half of online payments over the course of three days did not work due to “severe degradation” of their system’s performance.

The bank confirmed to the committee that it expects to pay between £5m and £7.5m in compensation to customers for “inconvenience or distress”.

When taking into account all the information shared by Barclays, this means the bank could pay out up to £12.5m in compensation due to outages over the last two years.

The second highest amount paid out by a firm in that same period is £350,000 from the Bank of Ireland.

The compensation paid out by other banks was:

• AIB (£590)
• HSBC (£232,697)
• Lloyds (£160,0000
• Nationwide (£77,452)
• NatWest (£348,000)
• Santander (£17,000)

In his submission to the committee, Vim Maru – the Chief Executive of Barclays UK – said the January outage was caused by a software problem with their system, and the incident was not due to a cyber-attack “or any other malicious activity”.

“We continue to work through the impact to ensure no customer or client will be out of pocket as a result of the incident.”

Barclays told BBC News it was “deeply sorry to customers who have been impacted by any service outage”.

Leading child doctors have joined calls for a complete ban on smacking children in England, saying there is no evidence it has any positive effect on their wellbeing.

Currently, smacking is unlawful in England, except in cases where it amounts to a “reasonable punishment”.

Now the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) wants that legal defence to be removed, using an amendment to a law which is currently making its way through Parliament.

The Department for Education said the government had no plans to change the law on smacking, but that it was committed to giving every child the best start in life.

Prof Andrew Rowland, RCPCH officer for child protection, said: “Now is the time for this Victorian-era punishment to go.”

If enough MPs backed the amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, tabled by Labour MP Jess Asato in January, then the defence of smacking as a “reasonable punishment” would be completely outlawed in England.

Currently, the situation on smacking children is different depending on where you are in the UK.

In Scotland and Wales, corporal – or physical – punishment is illegal, but in England and Northern Ireland the “reasonable punishment” defence still stands.

In England, the defence is included in the Children Act of 2004, but smacking children has been permitted by law since 1860.

Scotland was the first UK country to ban corporal punishment in November 2020, followed by Wales in March 2022.

Prof Rowland said there were 67 countries around the world which had already adopted smacking bans, with a further 20 committing to do so.

The government said it was “looking closely” at the changes made in Scotland and Wales, but had no plans to legislate on smacking at this stage.

A spokesperson said the bill in its current form represented the “single biggest piece of child protection legislation in a generation”.

“This government has prioritised significant reform of the children’s social care system, driving better child protection and information sharing between education, health and social workers to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks,” they added.

Parents at a baby sensory group in Sale, Greater Manchester, told the BBC they were all against smacking children, but some were unsure about whether it was right for the government to intervene.

Mum Leanne Casey, said parents “should be able to discipline how they see fit”, but added: “I don’t agree with smacking children though, so if a ban is what it takes then I’d agree that is what you need to do.”

Dad Oli Harrison said he would “never intervene” in another person’s parenting methods, but added that a ban would “probably be beneficial” to avoid it being seen as a “grey area”.

When looking at populations as a whole, Prof Rowland said physical punishment “undoubtedly harms children’s health”.

He said there were no scientific studies which provided robust evidence that smacking had any positive effect on children’s wellbeing.

Calls for a ban on smacking intensified after the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif.

Sara was murdered in August 2023 after a “campaign of torture” by her father and stepmother which lasted for two years.

Her father, who had fled to Pakistan after the murder, had phoned police in England claiming he had “legally punished” Sara before her death.

It is unlawful in England to assault a child causing actual or grievous bodily harm, or cruelty, but Prof Rowland said academic studies had shown children who were punished physically were at an increased risk of serious physical assault.

He said a complete ban on smacking would make it easier for the authorities to “draw a line and say there are never any circumstances involved where physical punishment of children is ever legal”.

Other organisations, including the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, have also backed the amendment.

Joanna Barrett, from the charity, said smacking had been associated with “depression, anxiety, increased aggression, and antisocial behaviour”.

She said a legal change was needed “urgently”, adding that “right now we know physical punishment remains a part of childhood for too many young people in England”.

Lynn Perry, chief executive of the Barnardo’s children’s charity, said: “No violence against children is acceptable. And yet children continue to face less legal protection against physical assault than adults.”

Additional reporting by Hope Rhodes

A new part of the immune system has been discovered and it is a goldmine of potential antibiotics, scientists have said.

They’ve shown a part of the body known to recycle proteins has a secret mode that can spew out an arsenal of bacteria-killing chemicals.

The researchers in Israel say it transforms our understanding of how we are protected against infection.

And gives a new place to look for antibiotics to tackle the growing problem of superbugs that resist our current drugs.

The discovery centres on the proteasome – a tiny structure that is found in every cell of the body.

Its main role is to chop up old proteins into smaller chunks so they can be recycled to make new ones.

But a series of experiments, detailed in the journal Nature, shows the proteasome detects when a cell has been infected by bacteria.

It then changes structure and role. It starts transforming old proteins into weapons that can rip open the outer layer of bacteria to kill them.

Prof Yifat Merbl, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, told me: “This is really exciting, because we never knew that this was happening.

“We discovered a novel mechanism of immunity that is allowing us to have a defense against bacterial infection.

“It’s happening throughout our body in all the cells, and generates a whole new class of potential natural antibiotics.”

The research team went through a process they called “dumpster diving” to find these natural antibiotics.

They were tested on bacteria growing in the laboratory and on mice with pneumonia and sepsis. The researchers said they were getting results comparable to some established antibiotics.

And when the researchers took cells in the laboratory and disabled the proteasome they were far easier to infect with bacteria like Salmonella.

Prof Daniel Davis, the head of life sciences and an immunologist at Imperial College London, said the findings were “extremely provocative and very interesting” as they changed our understanding of how our body fights infection.

“What’s really exciting about this, is it’s a totally undiscovered process by which anti-germ molecules are made inside our cells, it feels profoundly important and surprising.”

But he cautioned that turning this into a new source of antibiotics is an idea that “still needs to be tested” and that will take time.

More than a million people a year are estimated to die from infections that are resistant to drugs like antibiotics.

But despite the need, there has been a lack of research into developing new antibiotics to keep up with demand.

Against that bleak background, having somewhere new to look is a source of optimism for some scientists.

Dr Lindsey Edwards, a senior lecturer in microbiology at King’s College London, told the BBC: “It’s a potential goldmine for new antibiotics, that’s quite exciting.

“In previous years it’s been digging up soil [to find new antibiotics], it is wild that it’s something we have within us, but comes down to having the technology to be able to detect these things.”

She also says there could be fewer issues with developing them into drugs because they are already products of the human body so the “safety side of it might be a lot easier”.

A large portion of council leaders fear a major shake-up of local government will not solve the financial pressures their authorities are facing, a survey has suggested.

Ministers are streamlining local government by merging councils and setting up single authorities that provide all the services in their areas.

But a survey by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) think tank suggested there was low support for it among council leaders, with less than a quarter of those who responded believing the changes would ease their financial challenges.

A government spokesperson said reorganisation was “a tough choice” but “the right one” to improve the sustainability and resilience of local authorities.

Councils have been under financial pressure for some time.

A recent report by the National Audit Office found funding had failed to keep pace with growing demand for services – particularly social care, support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and temporary accommodation.

The government has increased the amount of money available to councils, and has promised to reform the way their funding works.

The government says the reorganisation will streamline and simplify services, make savings and create structures that will allow more powers to be handed down to council leaders and mayors.

But in some areas the plans have proved controversial.

A survey of council leaders and senior officials, carried out by the LGIU, found many thought the plans were unclear, the timescales were not achievable and while the plans might produce long-term savings, they would add to pressure on councils in the short-term.

Only 23% of those surveyed agreed with the statement that the reorganisation would alleviate the financial challenges facing councils.

The survey received responses from 150 councils out of 317 in England.

The think tank’s chief executive, Jonathan Carr-West, said: “On the one hand, the government has had some success in resetting the central-local relationship and there is near consensus that the promised multi-year settlements will benefit council finances.

“Conversely, many councils are anticipating that reorganisation and the increase in National Insurance Contributions will heap added pressure onto already overextended council budgets.”

The LGIU said the problems were not “insurmountable”, calling for councils to be more involved and more “manageable” timescales.

The restructuring of local councils started in some places under the last Conservative government, with Labour planning to extend it across all of England.

It would mean areas with two-tiers of councils, both county and district, would be replaced with single “unitary” councils that provide all services, with more regional mayors.

Last month the government agreed to delay local elections that were due to take place in May in nine council areas to allow them to reorganise.

For some, it’s a welcome move that will make help councils deliver services more effectively.

Tim Oliver, chairman of County Councils Network, which represents larger local authorities in England, said: “Financial pressures, coupled with the structural weaknesses and the public’s confusion of the multi-tier system, means that it has become impossible to justify.

“The government’s timelines for proposals for change are ambitious, but county councils and their partners are working hard to match these and deliver forward-looking proposals for new unitary councils.”

Others – including the District Councils’ Network, which represents smaller authorities – have warned it would create a period of “turmoil”.

While there’s some disagreement about the government’s plans to reshape local councils, many across the sector say the bigger challenge is addressing the underlying financial pressures they face.

For the financial year from April, 30 councils have been given “exceptional financial support” to help them balance the books, with many councils planning on increasing council tax and cutting services.

A government spokesperson said it is making £69bn of funding available to councils across England – which includes council tax rises.

“This government inherited a crumbling local government sector,” the spokesperson said.

“We are prepared to take tough choices necessary to rebuild local government and give taxpayers the services they deserve.”