One in ten people in Britain are shut out of the labour market for reasons that are individual, complex and highly local. The solution is not David Freud's mega-contracts, but drastic devolution of...
The new prime minister is an intellectual heavyweight, with strong views of his own on public policy. So where does this leave Britain's burgeoning think-tank industry? Peter Wilby reports on the...
Combating climate change is a colossal global challenge. But you have got to start somewhere. The LGIU's carbon trading scheme for councils points a way forward, as David Janner-Klausner explains
Consumer satisfaction is one vital area of public services that is not getting the attention it deserves. The solution is to measure improvements against criteria that put users right at the heart of...
Migrant workers contribute more to the British economy than the costs of the public services they receive, according to a study by the Trades Union Congress.
The Cabinet Office is preparing a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review that would require Whitehall departments to work together to tackle social exclusion, ministers revealed this week.
Plans to create an independent regulator for councils, housing associations and other social landlords have failed to gain immediate government support.
The government is expected to introduce a narrow Bill giving council-funded care home residents recourse to the Human Rights Act, after three Law Lords ruled that the current legislation excludes...
Large housing associations have stepped into the debate over how much landlords can afford to borrow by warning the government to keep its hands off their surpluses.
The Welsh Local Government Association has welcomed First Minister Rhodri Morgan's commitment to consider reallocating some business rates to councils.
Senior MPs have demanded that ministers redouble efforts to address the 'serious crisis' of the over-representation of black people in the criminal justice system.
Scottish local government finance could be heading for a radical change if a move to outcome budgeting is sanctioned by the new Executive, CIPFA delegates heard on June 13.
Scottish Water has outperformed its operating targets, reducing costs by £160m a year or 40% in real terms, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland has disclosed.
Informing the public is more than a duty, it's a challenge to make your audiences sit up and take notice. Wychavon council and the other winners of the Public Reporting and Accountability Awards have...
Some London councils are failing to support housing associations' development schemes, relying on neighbouring boroughs to house families on their waiting lists, a report claimed this week.
Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke has stood for the Tory leadership three times but his failure has not dampened his political activism, he tells Joseph McHugh
The incoming CIPFA president intends to apply the same drive and determination to his institute role as he has to his career and to his passion for orienteering
Is New Labour's modernisation agenda for public services anywhere near endgame? Tony Travers surveys the progress so far and asks whether a Brown government should slow down or speed up the pace of...
Ministers were this week accused of trying to sneak 'through the back door' a controversial decision over their child maintenance reforms after omitting it from a new Bill.
Men living in England and Wales' poorest wards suffer poor health and disability for 5.5 years longer on average than those in the richest wards, according to the Office for National Statistics.
