MPs have warned that government employees are less likely to come forward to disclose wrongdoing following the failure of Whitehall departments to protect whistleblowers in the past.
Housing minister Brandon Lewis has urged councils to submit bids for a £3m fund intended to quicken the planning process for new developments, amid concerns that construction could be hampered by...
People who volunteer across a host of community services including leisure centres and libraries should receive £100 off their council tax bill, the Local Government Association has suggested today.
MPs have called for a fundamental redesign of benefits designed to help people with health problems and disabilities back into work, warning that flaws in the current system ‘grave’.
Local authorities could be forced to publish the value of the council flats and houses that they own, under government plans unveiled by housing minister Kris Hopkins.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has said he would be ‘very disappointed’ if councils were not retaining nearly all of business rates by the end of the decade following the coalition’s local...
The new chair of the Local Government Association has called for councils to be given new powers to coordinate local employment support after warning that millions could be left without suitable work...
CIPFA president Mike Owen has urged political parties to avoid tempting voters with short-term policies at next May’s general election, but instead plan and budget for the medium to long term.
The Treasury is to limit the loan-to-income ratio of mortgages underwritten by the government’s Help to Buy scheme at 4.5:1 after the Bank of England announced restrictions on the use of these loans...
More than £20m of funds to help people hit by government welfare changes, such as the introduction of the ‘bedroom tax’, was unclaimed by councils in 2013/14, the Department for Work and Pensions has...
Introduction of the Personal Independence Payment for disabled people has been ‘nothing short of a fiasco’ that has let down some of the most vulnerable people in society, MPs have said today.
The Help to Buy equity loan programme violated Treasury guidelines because it was introduced without an assessment of the alternatives, MPs have said today.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has proposed public spending rules for the next parliament that include a commitment to cutting the level of the national debt as a proportion of economic output in...
The Audit Commission has urged councils to ensure they implement a strategic approach to asset and property management after finding £2.5bn of the local government estate could be put to better use.
Satisfaction with council services has remained steady over the last 18 months, a poll by the Local Government Association has found, with more than two-thirds of people either very or fairly...
Proposed reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme must ensure long-term stability as well cost savings, the National Association of Pension Funds has said.
Councils have been urged to ‘reclaim’ children’s services provision from control by Whitehall departments and inspectors so town halls can act as the local champions of the interests of children,...
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said the government must do more to ensure complaints about public services are listened to after it revealed more than 7,500 enquiries had been made in...
Uncertainty over when the computer systems needed to implement the government’s flagship Universal Credit benefit reform programme will be ready mean the implementation deadline could be missed, MPs...
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has sent an inspection team to examine allegations of governance failure, poor financial management and fraud at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Councils in England are to share £410m to fund plans to bring together local public service, reduce duplication and cut costs, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles announced today
Taxpayers lost out after the government set an overly cautious share price for the privatisation of Royal Mail in order to ensure the sale went ahead, the National Audit Office has said.
Chancellor George Osborne has committed the government to a goal of full employment and said job creation would now form a central plank of the coalition’s economic plan.