Latest data on the public sector finances show that government borrowing is continuing to expand, and suggest that Treasury predictions have underestimated the scale of the deficit
The Welsh Assembly Government’s 2010/11 budget plans fail to show how the government’s objectives will be met in ‘changed economic circumstances’, AMs have said
Social enterprises are weathering the recession far better than similar small to medium size businesses, according to the results of a survey by the Social Enterprise Coalition
Ministers are seeking ways to reduce ring-fencing of public service funding as documents to be released with next month’s Pre-Budget Report reveal a tangled web of funding streams
The UK public sector is being cheated out of an estimated £27bn a year, and must tackle the problem to safeguard jobs and services, a leading fraud expert has said
Despite three batches of ‘quantitative easing’, the UK economy is continuing to contract. So will the latest cash injection finally save the day? David Williams examines the evidence
A year and a half into the recession, how close are the public finances to Treasury forecasts and what does the future hold? In the run-up to the Pre-Budget Report, the IFS’s Carl Emmerson and Gemma...
Scotland’s Finance Minister has told Chancellor Alistair Darling that more capital spending must be brought forward if the country is to survive the continuing recession
Councils are still not being given reliable financial advice more than a year after the Icelandic banking collapse, according to the Commons communities and local government select committee
Northeast England councils striving to meet centrally set targets are unable to address the economic and social problems of the region, a
think-tank has found
Much is expected of the Total Place initiative – ministers are hoping it will join up services while producing huge savings. Guy Clifton warns, however, that the consequences have not been properly...
The scale of the public sector deficit demands no-holds-barred solutions. So could Total Place – the latest weapon in the government’s armoury – help to lower costs without damaging vital services?...
Public spending restrictions are likely to increase the amount of social housing that still fails the decent homes standard at the end of next year, MPs were told this week
A spate of job losses and a squeeze on pay and conditions have been stoking unrest across the public sector, ahead of the clampdown on spending expected in November’s Pre-Budget Report
NHS leaders have warned that the government might seek to squeeze health service spending by locking down the treatments price tariff for five years and clawing back surpluses
