Regional development agencies have long drawn Conservative fire. But the government's plans to give more powers to city-regions may appear attractive to Tories keen to make inroads into Labour...
Polyclinics are trumpeted as the best way to revolutionise patient care in the UK but bringing together the various services will work only if they are properly integrated, warn Candace Imison and...
Carers should be given an individual cash budget to help them cope with the strain of looking after older and disabled people, according to a leading think-tank.
Elderly people and their carers should be given the flexibility to use personal social care budgets to fund gardening or cleaning services, care minister Ivan Lewis has urged.
The economic downturn has heightened business concerns about the new supplementary business rate, the British Chambers of Commerce has told Public Finance .
Ten years of bold reforms and massive investment have failed to have any measurable impact on reducing youth offending, says an authoritative new study.
A change in the way gross domestic product is calculated could get the government off the hook as its fiscal rules are threatened by worsening economic forecasts, experts have suggested.
NHS leaders and experts have defended an apparent end-of-year spending bonanza, without which the health service's surplus for 2007/08 could have vastly outstripped the £1.8bn figure set by the...
The Scottish Government's plan for a local income tax has suffered a further setback after claims by a leading professor of law that it 'almost certainly' breaches the European Charter of Local Self-...
The Scottish Government should be given the same borrowing powers as local authorities, Finance Secretary John Swinney has told a parliamentary committee.
The near-revolt over the 10p tax band reveals how Parliament is beginning to exercise its powers to scrutinise government's tax and spending plans a development vital to democracy, argues Colin...
A year on from the publication of his report into local government, Sir Michael Lyons tells PF he is disappointed that more progress has not been made. Joseph McHugh reports
A public sector anti-fraud initiative that has detected millions of pounds in benefits overpayments and some 'blatant and shocking' fraud is to be expanded to Whitehall departments this year.
John Healey has signalled a possible major expansion in the role of Local Area Agreements, suggesting they might become the principal mechanism through which central government commissions local...
The prime minister has set out 'radical' plans to 'put more power in the hands of patients' treated by the NHS, as a Healthcare Commission hospital patient survey revealed wide variations in patient...
The public finances will be left in increasing disarray next year as a result of Chancellor Alistair Darling's May 13 decision to borrow £2.7bn to fund a tax cut for low- and middle-income households...
Gordon Brown has set out a draft legislative programme combining a new wave of public service reforms with measures aimed at reassuring the public that they will be shielded from the worst of the...
The Housing Corporation is to spend up to £200m purchasing homes on the open market as part of a major expansion of a government scheme for first-time buyers.
