Local authorities should not use excess demand for social housing as an excuse for denying choice to their tenants, housing minister Nick Raynsford said this week.
On December 11, managers at the London Borough of Hackney will learn whether the current crisis caused by a gaping hole in the budget will be compounded by a mass walkout of council staff.
Public services in rural areas, including education, social care, transport and post offices, face an annual audit to ensure they are meeting minimum performance targets.
Local authorities may be set to receive £44bn in next year's finance settlement, an inflation-busting increase of 6.7% but, with two different funding options on offer, 47 councils are left more in...
Ministers have spread most of next year's £2.9bn NHS increase evenly throughout the country, though some cash will be targeted at improving health in Labour's English heartlands.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn this week promised a significant expansion of the Private Finance Initiative and fired a broadside at those who have attacked the investment scheme.
Councils have been placed at the forefront of transforming run-down city centres in the biggest shake-up in British urban regeneration policies for almost 25 years.
Confusion still surrounds the delayed launch of the government's Citizens' Portal, aimed at providing a single electronic entry point to all public services.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has bowed to pressure from local government and announced reforms to the Bellwin formula to help embattled councils deal with the floods that have devastated much...
When Nigel Crisp was handed the BBC survey of health authorities' readiness for the winter months he must have felt lucky to start his first day as English NHS chief executive with a good news story.
An audacious plan by Halton Borough Council in Cheshire to move one of England's greatest sporting landmarks Wembley's Twin Towers from London to the north west has ended in failure, sparking an...
Smaller shire councils have been promised they will not be excluded from next year's housing stock transfer programme by larger urban authorities hoping to offload tens of thousands of homes.
Former deputy justice minister Angus MacKay was the big winner in the Scottish Cabinet reshuffle carried out by First Minister Henry McLeish this week.
Local Government Association chair Sir Jeremy Beecham has launched a renewed defence of the public service ethos and the value of 'vigorous local democracy'.
Efforts to minimise pressure on the health service this winter went up a gear this week as leading figures warned that the NHS faces a tough three months.
The chair of the body set up to examine how contracts are awarded under Best Value has reassured local authorities they will not have new regulations forced on them.
Audit Commission controller Andrew Foster this week called for a radical streamlining of NHS audit and inspection in order to drive out inefficiencies and duplication in the current system.
Ministerial interference in next year's finance settlement is threatening to divide local government, with London boroughs accusing the government of trying to cheat them out of £49m to placate its...
Health Secretary Alan Milburn ushered Best Value into the NHS last week, abandoning almost two decades of compulsory market testing in support services such as cleaning and catering.
