Daily roundup 4 July: Funding warning, advertising ban, and murder probe

Local authorities have reached the point where relentless financial cutbacks are putting the wellbeing of vulnerable adults and children at risk, the Conservative leader of the Local Government Association has warned. The Guardian reports that Tory peer Lord Porter said that after eight years of austerity, during which £16bn has been stripped from municipal budgets in England, councils risked being "damaged beyond recognition" and communities depleted of vital services.


A Cadbury advert targeting children online has been banned in the first crackdown of its kind to combat obesity. The Daily Mail reports that the Advertising Standards Authority banned campaigns by Cadbury, Chewits and Squashies sweets after rules changed last year on the online marketing of foods high in fat, sugar and salt to under-16s.


Detectives have launched a murder probe after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Liverpool. The Guardian reports that the boy was found after emergency services were called to Belle Vale Road at around 9pm on Tuesday. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead around midnight.


Cereal manufacturers must change their recipes to cut sugar if the government's obesity strategy is to succeed, the head of the NHS in England has warned. The Mirror reports that Simon Stevens told MPs it was "very concerning" that products marketed as healthy often contained large amounts of sugar. "On average children are having the equivalent of three sugar lumps at breakfast. For poorer children that is often much worse. That is obviously contributing a lot to the childhood obesity epidemic," he said.


The number of calls to a charity helpline for prisoners' families has more than doubled in the space of one year, with record numbers concerned about the risk of death or injury to loved ones in prison. The Prison Advice and Care Trust, a charity for prisoners' children and families, said the number of calls it has received has risen from 4,000 to over 8,000 in the past year, with around one in three families now getting in touch because they are afraid of serious harm coming to their family members in prison.


Children's charity Buttle UK has announced the appointment of Joseph Howes as its new chief executive after Gerri McAndrew, who led the organisation for 15 years, steps down in September. Howes joins the charity from Depaul UK, a charity that supports the homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged, where he has been the executive director of fundraising, development and communications since October 2013.