Government grant for local authority Private Finance Initiative schemes will move to an annuity-based system, in an effort to level the playing field with other forms of capital finance.
Radical plans to devolve control of services to neighbourhoods and reshape the landscape of local government have been launched this week, as Cabinet ministers gathered in Manchester for the...
The Wanless franchise keeps on growing. Not content with producing two influential reports on future NHS funding and public health, the former NatWest chief executive this week announced he is...
The Office for National Statistics must be granted the same independence from political interference as the National Audit Office if public confidence in the UK's economic data is to be restored, a...
Government plans to move thousands of Whitehall staff away from the Southeast received a minor boost this week when Birmingham emerged as the city favoured to host the proposed Gambling Commission.
Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson this week suspended plans to axe 25% of staff at the troubled Child Support Agency, but in the process reignited the row over government plans to cut 80,000...
Senior backbench MPs are demanding greater transparency over Sir Peter Gershon's efficiency targets amid concerns that advice from public spending watchdogs about achieving savings has been kept...
Local government is being forced to choose between paying its staff equally or delivering essential services, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis claimed this week.
The Scottish committee of inquiry into the future of local government finance has stressed its independence from the Lyons review in England, raising the possibility that Scotland could embark on a...
A Conservative government would save £35bn on government spending by 2007/08 under the spending plans outlined by Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin this week.
The long-running pay dispute at the Department for Work and Pensions could end this week after leaders of Whitehall's largest trade union endorsed a three-year deal, worth up to 15% for some staff.
The government should take great care in linking expenditure with outcomes as there is little evidence that its extra cash has led to educational improvements, MPs warned this week.
Councils were given an early Christmas present this week, when they were told they would no longer be responsible for finding £3bn in schools' and police authority savings called for in the Gershon...
Labour faces the embarrassment of going into next year's general election defending a record of rising homelessness after ministers admitted that numbers will continue increasing for another three...
The Scottish Executive has been criticised by an influential committee of MSPs for providing 'misleading' information when it claimed that its efficient government plan would save £1.7bn over the...
Council leaders in Scotland have warned that the Executive's funding settlement for local government will not be enough to prevent substantial council tax rises over the next three years.
Public service trade unions this week outlined a plan of action to defeat government proposals to reform staff pensions, but Chancellor Gordon Brown has warned he will not back down.
Town hall leaders are warning that the £1bn cash injection promised by Gordon Brown does nothing to tackle the underlying pressures on council tax bills, which could still soar in future years.
NHS trusts need to spend more of their budget on cleaning services, ministers said this week after it emerged that fewer than half of hospitals in England have good standards of cleanliness.