Environment

  • Public Finance
    24 Apr 03
    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....
  • Public Finance
    17 Apr 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    17 Apr 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    27 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    20 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    13 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    13 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    13 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    13 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    6 Mar 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    27 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    27 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    27 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    20 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    13 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    6 Feb 03
    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.
  • Public Finance
    6 Feb 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    30 Jan 03
    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 .
  • Public Finance
    30 Jan 03
    Ever received a letter from a council department informing you of the 'need to contact the LBU manager to discuss your M...
  • Public Finance
    30 Jan 03
    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...
  • Public Finance
    30 Jan 03
    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.
  • Public Finance
    23 Jan 03
    Private investors did far better than the public sector in reaping the benefits of the technology that led to the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep.
  • Public Finance
    9 Jan 03
    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.
  • Public Finance
    19 Dec 02
    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.

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