The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) updated its Exceptional Financial Support guidance for 2026-27 on 18 August 2026, and the page names 36 English authorities sharing a single status: "support agreed in-principle", with final amounts and capitalisation directions to follow "once confirmed"1. Exceptional Financial Support is the arrangement an English council enters when it cannot balance its budget and needs central government's permission to do something it is normally barred from doing. On the page as updated, no authority has that permission in final form.
MHCLG has issued no capitalisation direction to any of the 36 authorities, which is the written permission a council needs before it can cover day-to-day running costs by borrowing or by selling assets. Until MHCLG issues one, a council's section 151 finance officer is budgeting against a promise. The support was agreed in principle in February. Six months on, the paperwork that turns the promise into money a treasurer can rely on is outstanding for every authority on the list.
The list carried 35 authorities when the page first appeared on 23 February 2026 and 36 by 18 August, the addition being the Isles of Scilly at £0.926m, with identical status wording at both dates. Nothing else about the cohort changed across those six months.
No section 114 notice, support agreement or capitalisation direction was published anywhere in this window. A section 114 notice is the formal declaration a council's finance officer issues when the books cannot be balanced, and the most recent on this record remains Nottingham's third, in March. A resident meanwhile notices none of the paperwork, only the library opening hours, the bin round and the state of the road.
