On 17 July 2025, the Minister for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon OBE MP, announced in a written ministerial statement the issuing of a non-statutory best value notice to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.

The best value notice is a formal notification that the department has concerns regarding the authority and requests that the authority engages with the department to provide assurance of improvement. The authority’s progress against the notice will be reviewed after 12 months.