A major restriction on the rights of journalists to hold Town Halls to account for the way taxpayers’ money is being scrapped from this week.

From 1 July, reporters will no longer have to prove that they live in a borough in order to wade through financial records in search of a scoop.

Freelances, staff writers and citizen journalists now enjoy a beefed-up, statutory legal right to examine contracts, invoices and councillors’ expenses claims held by any local authority in England and Wales.