Auditors have suggested an overhaul of council borrowing and investment rules may be needed after 'alarm bells' were triggered by billions of pounds of spending. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) today urged the Government to look at the framework under which councils buy commercial property to generate income as a senior MP warned of local authorities 'acting as investment bankers'. The report recommended that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) should 'review whether the current framework is still achieving its intended aims' after finding that councils spent £6.6bn on commercial property from 2016/17 to 2018/19 - 14 times more than in the previous three years.
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