The government's election supremo, Alan Milburn, will reveal the full cost to taxpayers of his Cabinet role following an approach from the National Audit Office.
The Private Finance Initiative has not gone away it's just adapted to meet changing times. Mark Hellowell explores the opportunities and pitfalls in the new areas that the programme is expanding...
Last week's Budget announced more support for university-based research. But will it be enough to save the science departments that are closing across Britain? Stephen Court reports on the parlous...
District councils in Northern Ireland could be reduced from 26 to seven and given new legal powers under proposals published by the Review of Public Administration.
They've worked wonders in Canada and the US, and now they're over here to do the same. Nick Raynsford explains how local firms can use Business Improvement Districts to help transform their town...
Conservative efficiency plans are robust and the full financial burdens of scrapping 168 quangos and laying off 235,000 staff have been built into the party's £35bn savings target, according to...
Almos are the popular answer for cash-strapped councils wanting to upgrade their homes without hiving them off. But their powers are limited compared with housing associations. John Perry explains...
The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury is unafraid to speak of huge Whitehall cuts in his plan for better public services. Joseph McHugh heard his battle strategy
Is our system of government in terminal decline, obsessed by spin and central control? Sir Christopher Foster, a former adviser to both Labour and Tory ministers, thinks so. He uses privatisation of...
The Scottish Executive has published its first infrastructure investment plan, setting out a long-term, multibillion-pound scheme for improving Scotland's public services.
Public services in Scotland are delivered as part of a patchwork operation that is starting to fray. Minister Tom McCabe is stitching together a reform package that might begin with a reorganisation...
Beefing up city and county regions might paradoxically be the most effective way of putting the local into 'new localism' in the twenty-first century, argues Gerry Stoker
Risk registers are becoming ever-more numerous and elaborate, but they are not worth the Word documents they are printed on if they fail to engage with the everyday business of their organisation
Having overseen the Department of Health's 'big bang' NHS policies, Andy McKeon now scrutinises their impact from an Audit Commission standpoint. Karen Day spoke to him
Neighbourhood boards are the latest big idea for getting the public to improve the services they use. But will this US invention work here, asks Chris Skelcher
If the forthcoming social care green paper avoids spelling out the cost of long-term care for older people, Sir Derek Wanless's review is likely to be less coy, argues Paul Gosling
Pathfinder programmes set up to boost demand for housing in the North and Midlands have struggled to spend money on worthwhile projects, says the Audit Commission.
An independent report into the escalating cost of Britain's exam system published this week has spotlighted what it claims is a 'huge amount of superfluous or duplicated information'.
Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred this week stepped in to heal a potential breach with foundation trusts' regulator Monitor over the troubled Bradford Hospitals trust.
People are being attracted back to Britain's cities by better buildings and public services, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told urban planners this week.