The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has suspended two senior regeneration officers following allegations of large-scale misuse of public funds at organisations linked to two borough councillors....
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has launched a massive road-building programme and signalled that the government's long-term aim is road pricing.
Darling said: 'On any view, existing capacity...
The Local Government Association's hunt for a successor to Neil Kinghan has been thrown into disarray after top Treasury mandarin Adam Sharples turned down the job, Public Finance has learned....
Imposed targets and growing local autonomy must proceed hand-in-hand to improve public services, a study of some of England's best councils concludes.
The Improvement and Development Agency,...
The possibility of a merger of the ombudsman services for local authorities, central government and health has receded indefinitely, local government ombudsman Tony Redmond has complained in his...
Network Rail has announced plans to cut £1.3bn off its spending by 2006/07 through efficiency savings equivalent to 20% of its costs.
The company issued its business plan in March, in which it...
A 'fuel poverty' scheme has misdirected millions of pounds of public money, and its eligibility rules bear no clear relation to applicants' need, a National Audit Office review has found.
The NAO...
MPs this week called for a radical overhaul of regional grant distribution in England following fierce criticism of the current system.
Members of the Commons' Public Accounts Committee have...
The Audit Commission will take a more 'risk-sensitive' approach to inspections while Comprehensive Performance Assessments will 'focus on things that really matter', its new chief executive said this...
Northern Ireland's comptroller and auditor general John Dowdall, an honorary CIPFA member, was made a CB in the Queen's birthday honours list on June 14.
There were knighthoods for Metropolitan...
MPs have slammed the Department of Trade and Industry for failing to boost regeneration initiatives in deprived areas, despite throwing cash at problems in the form of grants.
Commenting in the...
|;¼ ?y criticised Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would be ranked as 'weak' if it were to undergo the same Audit Commission assessment process as local authorities, a...
Sir Andrew Foster has called for integrated teams of inspectors drawn from the various public sector watchdogs to be set up to make the scrutiny regime more co-ordinated and effective.
The...
The Food Standards Agency has come under fire from both environment minister Michael Meacher and consumer groups over the merits of organic and genetically modified food.
Heated exchanges have...
The government is creating a new NHS internal market and it is unclear whether it will lead to better patient care, the King's Fund claimed this week.
Ministers have consistently denied they are...
Councils could be given powers to take charge of empty homes and rent them to families in need.
Proposals to make better use of England's 300,000 long-standing empty homes were outlined on May 22...
Town hall leaders will use their top-level meeting with government ministers next week to demand assurances that councils will not be sidelined by the much-vaunted policy of 'new localism'.
Fears...
Watchdogs at the Office of Fair Trading have warned that their investigation into alleged anti-competition activities at the Environment Agency will be a complex affair.
The OFT launched its...
London boroughs have accused the government of 'spin' this week after five local education authorities were named and shamed as having the capital's worst performing schools, despite being recognised...
Anyone who thought that urban development corporations were as dead as the Thatcher government that created them should think again.
More than five years after the last generation of UDCs closed,...
Electricity companies were this week attacked for failing to pass on to consumers the 'substantial' cost savings brought about by government-led reforms in the sector.
The National Audit Office,...
The government has failed to think through the impact of its plans to build hundreds of thousands of extra homes in the Southeast, according to the Commons committee scrutinising Deputy Prime...
Non-profit-distributing public interest companies have a 'potentially important role' to play in public service delivery, says a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research. But it warns...
Ministers are poised to create the first urban development corporation in ten years in an attempt to help house-building east of London.
Proposals for a UDC in Thurrock, Essex, were published by...
If Amey, the cash-strapped former linchpin of the support services contracting world, were to rise from the ashes, it was hardly surprising that it should be under a foreign flag. Overseas firms have...
