Local councils are being invited to bid for a share of £25m being put up by the government to extend the street warden scheme. Councils will have to match the central payment from their own budgets...
The government's relationship with the main public sector unions took another downward turn this week when the teaching union, the NASUWT, said plans to privatise education services were 'dubious'...
Councils and the police can now impose curfews on children as old as 15 if they deem them anti-social, following new laws that came into effect on August 1.
A report that criticises the first Private Finance Initiative hospital to be opened in England has been labelled a 'whitewash' by public service union Unison.
The head of the body representing Scotland's independent care homes is threatening to demand that local authorities are stripped of their elderly care responsibilities, blaming councils for the...
The government has announced the locations of the first 16 centres of vocational excellence which are designed to boost young people's skills in fields where there are job vacancies.
A private firm has angered unions by following its takeover of school support services in Bradford with an immediate warning to 1,000 former council employees to expect staff reductions.
The leader of Birmingham City Council fears ministers may have to impose a mayoral referendum on the city to sidestep continual opposition by councillors.
Fifteen local authorities have been asked to explain successive high increases in council tax, as ministers restated their readiness to impose some form of spending controls in future years.
Pilot schemes to test methods of electronic voting will be set up in time for the 2002 local elections in an effort to encourage disenchanted voters to re-engage with politics.
Public sector bodies in Scotland will have to undergo tougher audit assessments from the autumn, following the introduction of a new code of practice by the auditor general and the Accounts...
The government got up to its old spinning tricks this week when Education Secretary Estelle Morris re-announced the creation of 45,000 childcare places for deprived neighbourhoods.
In what has been described as a 'near revolutionary' step, the government has reopened the debate on the unfunded police and fire pension schemes and raised the possibility of meeting pension costs...
Seven of the leading professional associations in local government have agreed a set of principles in response to Prime Minister Tony Blair's 'reform or bust' speech this week.
The Strategic Rail Authority must set 'more demanding' targets for improvements when its strategic plan for the railways is published in the autumn, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has demanded...
The government is to push ahead with plans for school reform despite stalling its much-trailed education white paper because of concerns about privatisation and the contentious issue of single-faith...
The campaign for elected mayors took one leap forward then a large step back this week after residents in Watford voted yes to a US-style boss, only to find that slow work by Parliament will put back...
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city riven by divisions. On one side are hip Labour councillors ready to plough as much as £488,000 into a youth culture event, the Love Parade.
Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers has pledged to forge a new relationship between central and local government by slashing bureaucracy and giving authorities greater financial freedom.
