Local authority spending has risen by 26% since 1998, according to a new survey, with education leading the way.
The survey, by market intelligence service Key Note, shows that councils spent £77....
Action must be taken to tackle staff shortages in mental health services, two leading think-tanks said this week.
In separate publications, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH) and the...
MPs this week launched a scathing attack on the government's complex community regeneration initiatives, claiming that Whitehall has too much control over the budgets for local schemes.
The Commons...
Plans to bring US-style regeneration to Britain's city centres could be undermined by a row over funding.
From April 2004, Business Improvement Districts (Bids), credited with turning around the...
Taxpayers will be millions of pounds worse off during the next 30 years because ex-council homes are being renovated by new landlords rather than by local authorities, the National Audit Office said...
Local Government Association economic and environmental policy director Neil Kinghan is crossing back into central government to become director general for local and regional government at the...
MPs have slammed the government's handling of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis as 'inexcusable', claiming ministers' slow reaction to events contributed to the spread of the disease and meant the cost...
As the British armed forces gear themselves for a seemingly inevitable conflict in the Gulf, MPs have warned the Ministry of Defence it must equip soldiers properly for extreme conditions following a...
Suspicions among council highways and transport officers that their budgets are being plundered by education and social services colleagues have been reinforced by the Commission for Integrated...
The increased use of an expensive drug has helped a campaign to cut the number of deaths from coronary heart disease, the national heart director said this week.
Launching a progress report on the...
Councils will be able to keep millions of pounds gleaned from business rates if they generate economic growth across their communities, under plans unveiled by local government minister Nick...
A new partnership body set up to boost housing in the Northwest has admitted that it must attract substantial private money because of uncertainty over government funding.
Elevate East Lancashire...
Ian Pearson, Northern Ireland's interim finance minister during the suspension of the Assembly, has announced a £2bn spending programme under the Reinvestment and Reform Initiative agreed last year...
A charity for the elderly has bitterly attacked a government U-turn on minimum environmental standards in care homes.
Ministers bowed to pressure from care-home owners and dropped key standards...
Council tax increases in London and the Southeast are set to soar above 25% for the first time, fuelling allegations that the government has shifted significant resources to the Midlands and the...
Social services directors this week urged the government to delay the introduction of council fines for hospital 'bed-blocking', as a critical report by the National Audit Office exposed the extent...
Councils hoping to pump millions of pounds into rundown housing were dealt a major blow this week when the government closed off one possible route for borrowing money.
Prison reformers have demanded a review of the Home Office's policy of jailing minors after a damning report was issued this week on the privately run Ashfield young offenders institution in...
The Treasury has opened its doors to the prospect of allowing councils to raise and control more funds locally, according to Paul Boateng, the chief secretary to the Treasury .
A decade-long catalogue of failures by the Lord Chancellor's Department and a private contractor has turned what should have been a straightforward IT scheme into arguably 'the shoddiest Private...
Council tenants, trade unionists and councillors descended on Westminster this week to increase pressure on ministers to give local authorities the same rights as housing associations.
Local government leaders have gone on the offensive over this year's finance settlement amid fears that increases in education funding could mean other services are starved of cash.
Taxpayers may end up paying millions of pounds to deal with problems caused by abandoned waste sites because of poor costing by operators, says the National Audit Office.