The government 'talks the talk' on granting the public sector more local autonomy, but when problems arise it immediately reverts to its centralist tendencies, the director of the Institute for...
Liverpool plans to spend more than £45m to make a success of its status as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, after it secured the UK nomination on June 4.
It defeated bids from five other...
Rail regulator Tom Winsor has admitted that he will find it more difficult to hold the public interest company Network Rail to account than he did its private sector predecessor Railtrack.
Speaking...
Lack of financial management in schools was a 'critical factor' in this year's funding crisis, the Local Government Association claimed this week.
In comments likely to further inflame the debate...
Schools with budget surpluses must be forced to hand them over to their struggling counterparts to help solve the education funding crisis, a teaching union has demanded.
The National Association...
Local government employers this week rubbished union proposals for a £6.50 an hour minimum wage in the sector, claiming it would add £2bn to council wage bills and force £100-a-year tax rises on to...
Future investment in public services will suffer if Britain fails to join the euro, European commissioner Neil Kinnock has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance , Kinnock, who is vice...
Leaders of business and public sector workers have exchanged insults over the role of private firms in providing public services.
Confederation of British Industry president Sir John Egan told the...
Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to allow schools to use money earmarked for building improvements to ease budget shortages violates good accounting practice, CIPFA has warned.
The...
Scotland's deputy first minister, Jim Wallace, is to take on the task of reviving its flagging economy, at the heart of First Minister Jack McConnell's new administration.
Wallace, the Liberal...
Anyone who thought that urban development corporations were as dead as the Thatcher government that created them should think again.
More than five years after the last generation of UDCs closed,...
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council is failing to meet its statutory duties to vulnerable children, and its services for adults are in need of 'radical overhaul', inspectors have found.
A damning...
Foundation trusts will increase inequity and lead to wage inflation and aggressive staff poaching, the Commons health select committee said this week.
The committee's report, which was published to...
The Commons' education select committee has launched an inquiry into the row over schools funding, calling on standards minister David Miliband to explain an alleged £530m shortfall.
Chair Barry...
Every local authority will be asked to explain its education budget decisions in an attempt to resolve the row between ministers and councils over allocations to schools.
Education Secretary...
Head teachers this week accused ministers of playing a deliberate 'smoke and mirrors' game with education budgets, using 'double or triple counting' tricks to play up bottom-line increases in funding...
A three-year government review of rent restructuring has been criticised by the Chartered Institute of Housing for avoiding major questions.
The review, launched by the Office of the Deputy Prime...
Gordon Brown has the reputation of a chancellor who likes to spring surprises when he steps up to the dispatch box to deliver his Budget statement.
But this year the surprise came at the expense...
MPs this week launched a scathing attack on the government's complex community regeneration initiatives, claiming that Whitehall has too much control over the budgets for local schemes.
The Commons...
Gordon Brown opened a new front in the government's ongoing battles with trade unions this week when he used his Budget statement to indicate a move towards regional pay settlements.
Government reform of unemployment services, announced in this week's Budget, could lead to 'widespread short-termism' across the sector, the leading civil servants' union has claimed.
Officials at...
Twenty-two luminaries from the world of local government are to scrutinise how Whitehall funds town halls, as the balance of funding review finally got under way this week.
Local government...
The Liberal Democrats pledged to abolish council tax and replace it with a locally set income tax, as they launched their campaign on March 31 for the May council elections.
Local government...
The government's transport policy is destined for failure unless it sets out its intentions on road pricing and presents a credible plan for cutting pollution and congestion, a committee of MPs has...
Neglect by the former Railtrack has landed its public interest successor with a soaring infrastructure bill.
Network Rail's business plan, published on March 31, showed that maintenance, operating...
