Public bodies must slash the time it takes to provide services if the government is to become more responsive to citizens' needs, a minister admitted this week.
One in ten people in Britain are shut out of the labour market for reasons that are individual, complex and highly local. The solution is not David Freud's mega-contracts, but drastic devolution of...
The new prime minister is an intellectual heavyweight, with strong views of his own on public policy. So where does this leave Britain's burgeoning think-tank industry? Peter Wilby reports on the...
Combating climate change is a colossal global challenge. But you have got to start somewhere. The LGIU's carbon trading scheme for councils points a way forward, as David Janner-Klausner explains
Migrant workers contribute more to the British economy than the costs of the public services they receive, according to a study by the Trades Union Congress.
The Private Finance Initiative has had more than a decade to prove its worth for public services. Dave Prentis explains why it has been tested and found wanting by numerous official bodies
The Cabinet Office is preparing a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review that would require Whitehall departments to work together to tackle social exclusion, ministers revealed this week.
Plans to create an independent regulator for councils, housing associations and other social landlords have failed to gain immediate government support.
An independent inquiry into the funding of free personal care for elderly people in Scotland has been ordered by the SNP minority government at Holyrood.
The Department for Communities and Local Government this week accused three councils of wasting taxpayers' money over a legal challenge against Ruth Kelly's plans for more unitary authorities.
Town hall leaders have urged ministers to reject a key proposal from David Freud's welfare review, claiming that regional 'mega-contractors' could fail to combat deep-rooted local unemployment...
Public sector regulators should promote a 'culture of curiosity' among service providers, the Audit Commission's chair, Michael O'Higgins, told delegates.
Computer glitches have been blamed for a substantial drop in council tax collection in 23 local authorities, leading to a loss of more than £26m from town hall budgets last year, Public Finance has...
The government has given way to union demands to delay retirement age increases for long-serving members of the Local Government Pension Scheme until 2020, local government minister Phil Woolas...
Consumer satisfaction is one vital area of public services that is not getting the attention it deserves. The solution is to measure improvements against criteria that put users right at the heart of...
Alex Salmond's government might be 'in office, not in power'. But that is not holding the Scottish National Party back from launching a radical public sector shake-up. Iain Macwhirter reports from...
The NHS and local authorities must collaborate over continuing health care but uncertainty about the framework is making this difficult, and the lack of a dispute resolution procedure will not help...
Britain will honour the aid pledges it made at Gleneagles in 2005, even if others are reneging on them, Development Secretary Hilary Benn has told Public Finance
The public sector faces a back-to-the-future scenario under this year's Comprehensive Spending Review, according to Robert Chote, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Proposals to restructure equality legislation need to be seen as an opportunity to tackle entrenched social inequalities, according to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
Large housing associations have stepped into the debate over how much landlords can afford to borrow by warning the government to keep its hands off their surpluses.