When Gordon Brown first got his feet under the table at the Treasury way back in 1997 he promised to hit the ground running. Ten years on and his protégé Ed Balls has wasted no time in...
Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week outlined plans to force benefit claimants into work axing some payments and asking people to take jobs outside their locality.
It's time to step up the fight against global warming. Local government has been leading the way but now it must help an increasingly concerned public to do its bit. The best way is through...
A new level of ambition is needed if communities are to guarantee their viability in the low-carbon decades ahead. That's why we must find the next Chamberlains, Livingstones and Schwarzeneggers
Councils face mounting costs in meeting their 'green' obligations. There's much they can do to cut these but they still need more resources, argues Chris Wilson
Now that politicians have promoted sustainability from token policy pledge to manifesto must-have, Public Finance 's latest round table posed the question of how local authorities can save the...
The delivery of flagship skills programmes remains on track despite the decision to split the former Department for Education and Skills in two, a senior education official claimed this week.
Councils and other public service leaders rushed to unpick the substance of the government's forthcoming legislative plans as the prime minister broke with tradition and set out much of his programme.
New Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has vowed to make 'localism and devolution' the watchwords of her tenure, she said in her first major speech since her appointment.
The government's Health and Safety Executive is set to relocate hundreds of posts from London to Merseyside as part of a Whitehall plan to cut civil service numbers and costs, Public Finance can...
The government's Sure Start project has failed to help deprived black and ethnic minority families, according to a report for the new Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Civil servants have condemned a Foreign and Commonwealth Office decision to axe language services for government staff involved in anti-terrorism work.
New Health Secretary Alan Johnson is launching a much-needed charm offensive starting with a clinician-led NHS review. Seamus Ward assesses the chances of tackling the problems stacking up in his...
Sir Simon Milton, the new chair of the Local Government Association, believes that there are local solutions to a range of issues, from health to housing, and he is determined to fight for more...
The new prime minister's plan to give Parliament greater powers sounds good on paper. But, just like his predecessors, he has made major machinery-of-government changes without involving either House
First Minister Alex Salmond has appointed an influential group of leading academics and business leaders to sit on a new Council of Economic Advisers in Scotland.
The Scottish National Party has been criticised by a public finance expert for lacking financial discipline and making 'dubious assumptions' about future savings.
Opponents of Britain's Private Finance Initiative ignore one rather vital fact it works. Not only does it do what it's meant to do, it does it so well that other countries are queuing up to learn...
Taking the politics out of the NHS sounds like an attractive idea. But an independent board would be bad for democracy and bad for our health, argue George Jones and John Stewart
It's been a challenging week for Team Gordon, as the new PM and his Cabinet strive to show who's in charge. Peter Riddell assesses what all the ministerial changes mean
