The chancellor whoever that might be in 2007 will have to conjure up a way of meeting expensive government commitments while implementing a tight public spending squeeze in the years ahead
The government's target is to halve the numbers of UK children living in poverty by 2010. But success rests on adequate funding, and campaigners doubt that enough money will be provided in next year'...
Your begin your first job in ignorant bliss of the pitfalls ahead, then continue to learn the hard way. But it doesn't have to be like this. Michael Ware reveals his need-to-know list
The Department of Health has admitted that the financial regime governing NHS trusts is unsustainable, yet has declined to implement an Audit Commission recommendation to correct it.
No sooner had Chancellor Gordon Brown finished adding up his promised £36bn investment in education over the next four years than the economists were asking the inevitable question: 'How much of that...
Services for older people are 'teetering on the brink', Local Government Association chair Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart was due to tell the House of Lords on December 7.
Sir Michael Lyons' Inquiry into the future of local government has been delayed once more this time so that he can take into account the recommendations of the Barker, Eddington and Leitch reviews...
Road pricing, cutting congestion, reducing carbon monoxide emissions and improving accessibility to public transport will be at the heart of Scotland's 20-year strategy on transport, Transport...
The demise of university science departments, coupled with a sharp decline in the number of school pupils learning languages, is causing alarm that the UK's competitiveness is at risk, as Stephen...
Halfway through its life, the government's efficiency programme is ahead of its targets. But with a fiscal squeeze on the way and no let-up in spending plans, the public sector is going to feel the...
What links climate change, transport, planning and health? Answer: they are some of the issues that Chancellor Gordon Brown has outsourced to expert, independent review.
An all-too familiar debate was reignited this week as ministers unveiled the provisional local government grant settlement for 2007/08. Councils were quick to warn that they faced tough choices...
NHS budget cuts, tight eligibility criteria and foot-dragging on personalised services have created 'pockets of poor performance' in adult social care, England's inspectorate has found.
Chancellor Gordon Brown is poised to announce cuts to the administrative budgets for all Whitehall departments in his Pre-Budget Report on December 6, Public Finance has been told.
NHS managers feel like they've been jumping through hoops and juggling priorities for ever. Now the health secretary is about to launch a major new challenge, in the form of a revamped payment by...
One of the proposals in the local government white paper that has attracted little comment is to reform Best Value. The government is putting a renewed emphasis on competition and this time it's...
Ed Balls, the economic secretary to the Treasury, has challenged other European countries to follow the UK's lead and set up robust accounting procedures for the spending of European Union funds.
Wendy Alexander, who resigned from Jack McConnell's Cabinet four years ago, has returned to Labour's front line as convener of Holyrood's powerful finance committee.
Ministers are prepared to intervene in the 500 English schools deemed 'inadequate' following this week's Ofsted annual report, the country's most senior education official has told Public Finance
The chief executive of the NHS has admitted that the Department of Health did not keep a close enough eye on hospital spending as they rushed to meet targets by 'overshooting' required staffing...
