Transport ministers need to work harder to encourage local authorities and private firms to invest in light rail systems if the ten-year Transport Plan targets are to be met, government auditors said...
Local authorities that defied government warnings to keep council tax increases to low single figures will be capped this year and an announcement confirming this is 'imminent', according to town...
Gordon Brown's plans to make £20bn a year in efficiency savings by 2008 look shaky after official figures showed that Whitehall's administration costs last year went more than £1bn over budget.
Some of the country's leading experts and political spokespeople on public finance will be gathering next week for a round-table debate on the government's July 2004 Spending Review.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone will not hesitate to withhold more transport cash from the capital's boroughs if they fail to pursue policies in line with his objectives.
Councils in Scotland have come under pressure to explain why they have not cut council tax bills when total reserves are as high as £839m, or 9% of expenditure.
Teachers' leaders are pushing for reassurances that the proposed new 'short, sharp' school inspection regime will not lead to additional pressures on staff.
Spending on economic development in Scotland has fallen as a share of the total Scottish budget in the period since devolution, a research report has disclosed.
A badly botched procurement deal has left the armed services with a £259m fleet of helicopters that can be flown only in clear weather and above 500 feet, the National Audit Office has found.
Public sector finance managers have given strong backing to the government's plans to relocate thousands of civil servants from London to the provinces as part of a multibillion pound efficiency
Social landlords need £8.4bn to be pumped into affordable housing during the next three years so they can build 140,000 new homes by 2008, the chancellor was told this week.
Council leaders are to deliver a stark warning to ministers that key public services will suffer unless they are given significant new resources in the forthcoming Spending Review, Public Finance...
As governments wrestle with funding growing public services, big business is getting away with millions in tax avoidance schemes. Tightening tax laws could claw back vital cash for social investment
The Scottish Executive is on course to meet the majority of targets set out in its draft budget for 2004/05, Finance and Public Services Minister Andy Kerr announced this week.
Whitehall's union leaders have asked ministers to clarify the nature and extent of job cuts and relocations urgently, following the Lyons review and the chancellor's Budget statement.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has told his party's spring conference that he is not scared to use the word 'redistribution' when describing his tax and spending plans.
Gordon Brown's pledge to prune Whitehall's army of Sir Humphreys and slash billions of pounds from the government's annual spending bill ensured that these issues dominated last week's post-Budget...
Government attempts to reduce poverty and inequality across England have had a limited impact so far, despite sustained investment, according to a report by the Social Exclusion Unit.
Senior parliamentary watchdogs this week launched a broadside at the Labour government, criticising ministers for continually blocking Commons committees from cross-examining senior policy advisers...
The Treasury is determined to monitor Whitehall departments to ensure that extra investment reaches the front line and is not held up in overrunning capital projects, Chancellor Gordon Brown warned...
