& nothing gained. Or so say the growing army of private equity investors in public services and assets. Paul Gosling explores the pros and cons of such partnerships for the public sector
There has been one gaping hole in Labour's devolution success: the English regions. RDAs and non-elected assemblies have not lived up to expectations and the new PM is looking to give more powers to...
Should citizens have a direct say in the way councils spend their money? George Jones and John Stewart explore the pros and cons of participatory budgeting an idea whose time might have come
The government has made slow progress against its target to clear a backlog of 450,000 asylum seekers' case files despite a five-year plan introduced last summer, the chief executive of the Border...
The standard of maths and English achieved by 14-year-olds has fallen well short of government targets, prompting calls for a thorough review of the assessment system.
Former enterprise minister Wendy Alexander is in pole position to take the Scottish Labour Party leadership after former First Minister Jack McConnell resigned on August 15.
NHS foundation trusts have been accused of circumventing the cap Parliament imposed on their private patient work by establishing arm's-length bodies whose income does not show up in their accounts.
Northern Ireland's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety is to clamp down on the fraudulent use of its health service by Irish Republic residents.
The scaling down of Public Service Agreements has been heralded as emblematic of a less centralist approach to performance management. But details of the new delivery agreements suggest otherwise
New Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has thrown down the gauntlet in a green paper designed to get the long-term unemployed into jobs. But, as Mark Conrad reports, there are some tricky battles...
Housing is back at the top of the political agenda, with a green paper promising to solve the affordable housing crisis. But how is the new prime minister going to square a return to social rented...
Could the collapse of London Tube PPP consortium Metronet have been averted or is there something about this type of public-private deal that spells disaster? Christian Wolmar investigates
An intense focus on outcomes is essential if the public sector is to deliver real value, says Geoffrey Filkin. Here he argues that government can achieve better performance without committing extra...
Northern Ireland's five education and library boards have been given a year's stay of execution after ministers decided to delay the creation of their replacement Education and Skills Authority,...
Health Secretary Alan Johnson pledged to improve the convenience and accessibility of GP care this week, after it emerged that patients in deprived areas and those from ethnic minorities were the...
Communities in the Thames Valley were bracing themselves for more flooding as operations continued to restore tap water supplies to 350,000 people in western England after thousands of hectares were...
In the early days of New Labour, the Private Finance Initiative was seen as the only game in town for funding major public sector projects, but the Metronet crisis could mean the game is up, writes...
