A vote for independence would require Scotland’s 32 councils to be given more autonomy too, their finance directors agreed at PF’s recent dinner debate
Local government minister Brandon Lewis has announced that councils in England will be given an extra £6.7m in Whitehall funding to cover the cost of repairs following this winter’s floods.
G4S and Serco performed poorly in contracts to provide accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK, the National Audit Office has today in the latest criticism of the under-fire outsourcing firms
Town halls have warned that they face having to impose further cuts to council tax support schemes after the grant to pay for them was merged into general funding by the government
Members of the public and businesses will be able to bid to buy up a portion of Whitehall’s £330bn land and property portfolio under a Treasury-backed scheme launched today
A government top-slice of council funding for early intervention projects could lead to cuts in services intended to protect vulnerable children, authorities have warned today
The Department for Communities and Local Government must do more to measure the cumulative impact of cuts on councils to ensure that town halls are able to manage the reductions, the National Audit...
Councils have continued to improve their financial reporting, with only one local authority – Manchester City Council – receiving a qualified audit opinion on its 2012/13 accounts, the Audit...
The costs of the government’s controversial free schools programme are increasing and the Department for Education needs to exert more control over funding, the National Audit Office has said today.
The rate of UK public library closures slowed last year, with 74 libraries shutting compared to 201 in 2011/12, CIPFA’s latest library survey has revealed.
There are ‘significant and unexplained variations’ in the quality of NHS maternity services in England and the number of midwives remains below best practice benchmarks, auditors said today
MPs today hit out at the ‘extraordinarily poor’ implementation of Universal Credit by the Department for Work and Pensions, saying it had led to public money being wasted.
The government lacks a coherent strategy for implementing its flagship payment-by-results system and use of the contracts so far has been seriously flawed, charities warned today.
A revised government analysis of the proposed High Speed 2 rail line has slightly downgraded the economic benefits of the route, but has also concluded Britain cannot meet its future transport needs...
The UK economy grew by 0.8% in the three months to the end of September, the largest increase in more than three years, figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed today
The government has struck a deal to support the construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, but the terms could see energy company EDF receiving above-market payments...
Private or voluntary firms that win outsourcing contracts for public services will be required to offer employees continued access to public sector pensions, the government has said.
The government’s plan to privatise the Royal Mail amounts to ‘flogging off a national institution on the cheap’ and could leave taxpayers shortchanged by future asset sales, Labour’s shadow business...
Funding for GP services has fallen by £400m in real terms over four years, the Royal College of GPs revealed today. It warned this had left a ‘black hole’ in the finances of many practices
Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that the ‘crisis’ in the public finances caused by the government’s deficit is not over, and he indicated further cuts to spending will be needed.
The government's controversial new back-to-work scheme is to be piloted in two parts of the UK, the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said today.