The government should learn to do less and pass power back down to citizens, former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown told the CIPFA conference in Liverpool last week.
Whitehall’s shared services initiative has ‘failed to deliver the savings it should have’ despite significant scope for cost reductions, the Public Accounts Committee said today.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has been accused by fellow Tories of appeasing supporters of Scottish independence, following his announcement of plans to cut the strength of the regular army from...
Ministers must set out ‘quickly’ how they will respond to failing public services in the new environment of increased competition and spending restraint, auditor general Amyas Morse has said.
Barclays is unlikely to have acted alone in its manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate and there is ‘a lot more to come’, according to the former deputy governor of the Bank of England,...
The head of the civil service told the conference that the involvement of CIPFA members will be crucial to maintaining public services as the spending cuts begin to bite.
A continuing rise in the UK deficit could increase government borrowing costs if bond markets fear the coalition is ‘losing control’, journalist Paul Mason told CIPFA’s annual conference today.
The public’s desire to simultaneously have lower taxes and better public services is just one example of the ‘broken political discourse’ that needs urgently to be addressed, RSA chief executive...
The quality of government reporting, auditing and financial management is the biggest challenge facing the public finance profession right now, the new CIPFA president told the conference this...
More than £150m could be saved annually if the firm that owns Britain’s railways was brought into full public ownership, according to a report published today.
A cross-government approach is needed to tackle the lower literacy standards achieved by boys and to close the ‘reading gender gap’, MPs and peers said today.
Abolition of the Audit Commission will change the way council spending is scrutinised just as funding pressures increase. But the National Audit Office will help the sector steer clear of the dangers...
Police forces in England and Wales have largely ‘risen to the challenge’ of maintaining services at a time of public spending cuts, the Inspectorate of Constabulary said today.
The growing costs of councils’ care and statutory responsibilities will wipe out any funding for other services within eight years unless Whitehall provides urgent cash, the Local Government...
An increase in central government spending meant public sector net borrowing hit £17.9bn last month, £2.7bn higher than the same time last year, it has been revealed today.
The government is set to offer greater devolution to English councils later this year in a move that will signal a ‘very radical’ extension of economic powers to local authorities
Some benefits paid to pensioners should be means-tested to meet the costs of reforms to adult social care, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said today.
Many local authority services are ‘obvious candidates’ for being taken over by employee-owned firms, the government taskforce on public service mutuals said today.
Ministers have launched a review of their choice policy for the public sector, with the aim of identifying barriers and increasing diversity of provision.
