The Welsh Assembly's finance minister has defended in resolute terms the decision to 'rebadge' Best Value and dilute the role of external inspection in the principality.
A promising start, but must try harder: that is the message from education professionals to the secretary of state Estelle Morris after her government's long-awaited Education Bill was published last...
Chancellor Gordon Brown propelled the debate on the future funding of the National Health Service to the top of the political agenda as he announced a £1bn boost in spending for next year in his pre-...
English local authorities could be up to £200m better off after local government minister Nick Raynsford unveiled plans to scrap the council tax discount for second-home owners.
Regional rail services look set to move back into public sector control with ministers preparing to give major cities a key role in managing local train networks.
Civil servants across Whitehall are confused about who their 'customers' are, with many considering ministers their main focus for policy, a government-sponsored report reveals.
Local authorities are to be given clear guidance from the government on how much low-cost housing they should demand from developers under the system of 'planning gain'.
Bob Kiley, the transport commissioner for London, told Public Finance this week that the proposed controversial public-private partnership for the Tube was close to falling through.
Members of the panel overseeing the government's review of Best Value were still being appointed as it prepared to meet for the first time last week, Public Finance has learned.
Local authorities reiterated their opposition to any enforced reorganisation this week as the government set a clear timetable for elected regional assemblies.
English councils are set to receive an increase of around 7% in grant when ministers unveil the provisional 2002/03 finance settlement next week, Public Finance can reveal.
The Employers Organisation is to set up a graduate training programme to try to attract some of the brightest and best university students into a career in local government.
Social housing needs billions of pounds more in funding from 2003/04 onwards to tackle social regeneration and to provide 20,000 extra homes per year, the government was told this week.
Wendy Thomson, head of the Office for Public Service Reform in the Cabinet Office, has thrown her weight behind the idea of a genuine and extensive transfer of powers to local service deliverers, in...
Prejudice in central government circles against the ability of councils to deliver service improvement helped derail Best Value in Wales, according to one of the principality's most prominent local...
As the British government muses over the future of local democracy, a cluster of countries is grappling with the gargantuan task of creating local government in a bid to join the European Union.
UK local authorities are edging ahead of their US counterparts in offering public services on-line, according to research published by an e-government business group.
Unison members at Westminster City Council have threatened to walk out over plans for a £1bn outsourcing contract intended to improve customer services.
The future of the Public Private Partnership Programme looks increasingly uncertain after it was confirmed that there are currently no plans to replace outgoing chief executive Peter Fanning.
Albert Bore, one of local government's few campaigners for directly elected mayors, has narrowly survived a challenge to his leadership of Birmingham City Council.
