[DTV]

The reason I ask is that Nottingham has just declared its now effectively bankrupt. Do these regional newsrooms report extensively on regional governments and follow these stories that eventually lead up to massive headlines like a major city going bankrupt? This news seemingly comes out of nowhere until it goes national. Just wondering if there is any back or regional reporting tracking the lead up to such a declaration. Do they have city hall reporters covering local government? Or is it just covering press conferences and charity appeals. Seems like no one is watching whats going on locally. At least maybe thats the perception. Someone's got their hand in the biscuit tin, not saying in a nefarious way, but this cant be normal.

Fundamentally, regional government doesn't really exist in England. The closest are the GLA and Combined Authorities, though these aren't really governments but glorified transport executives with a degree of regulatory adjustment powers. Local government, which is what Nottingham City Council comes under, is also not particularly powerful, with incredibly limited levels of fiscal autonomy. In short, we're not talking about powerful institutions and the coverage of them needs to have that context in mind.

In terms of covering local politics coverage, each BBC TV region will have a political editor and there will be a couple of additional politics reporters funded through Local Radio (though covering TV too) - however, their remit includes all layers of politics within the region. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), which was launched in 2017 and is funded by the BBC, does provide reporters who cover local government and can report on BBC services, but even then these are still limited resources and its reporters will often be covering multiple local areas.

With the particular issue of council bankruptcies, the fundamental driving factor is the austerity policy of central government, which has substantially reduced the grants that make up a huge proportion of council funding. In some cases there are local exacerbating factors (Birmingham Council lost an equal pay case, meaning it has to pay £ms in back pay, and Thurrock in Essex was involved in questionable investments) and these have been reported on by the BBC before a Section 114 notice is issued.