New outsourced audit contracts could save local authorities as much as £80m by the end of the decade as a result of lower fees, the Audit Commission announced today.
Combined city authorities should be given the same powers as the Mayor of London to levy taxes for infrastructure and oversee planning, a think-tank has said.
The funding system for local government could cease to work effectively within a decade due to constraints placed on councils, the chief executive of CIPFA has told MPs
Welfare spending across 26 benefits, including elements of the Universal Credit, is to be capped at £119.5bn from 2015/16, Chancellor George Osborne has announced
Ministers have announced an increase in the amount of money that the government will provide to subsidise childcare as part of Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget
The Office for Budget Responsibility should be given the power to vary VAT, income and corporate tax rates to ensure the sustainability of the public finances, the think-tank Reform said today.
Outsourcing by government departments risks creating ‘a shadow state’ where public spending is not transparent, and reforms are needed to increase accountability, the Public Accounts Committee has...
Councils are to receive an extra £140m to repair roads damaged by this winter’s severe weather, but local authorities warned the money would not be enough to cover the maintenance bill.
Councils are cutting the support they provide to keep bus services running due to the growing cost of the concessionary fares scheme for elderly people, the Local Government Association has warned.
The coalition’s programme to cut the cost of operational Private Finance Initiative schemes should eventually save more than double its initial £1.5bn target, the chief executive of the Local...
Ongoing reforms to financial management in government are intended to improve management accounting and place finance professionals at the heart of Whitehall decision-making, senior figures have said.
GP practices must join together to form primary care networks if attempts to shift health services away from hospitals and into the community are to succeed, according to the King’s Fund
The number of people employed in some public services will fall by as much as 40% as a result of the government’s deficit reduction plan, an Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis has revealed.
Chancellor George Osborne has ruled out a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK in the event of a Yes vote in September’s independence referendum
Companies hit by the current spate of flooding will be given business rate relief, Prime Minister David Cameron announced today as he set out a package of measures designed to give financial help to...
The government’s part-localisation of business rates to councils has been ‘ill-designed’ as the plan to reset the system by 2020 means growth incentives will soon diminish, the Institute for Fiscal...
Just over one-third of councils in England have so far agreed to accept a government grant to freeze or cut their council tax from April, latest figures from the Department for Communities and Local...
Increasing demands are being made of the fledgling Education Funding Agency, but there are questions over its capacity to absorb new responsibilities and how its performance will be monitored,...
The UK economy grew by 0.7% in the last three months of 2013, the Office for National Statistics said today, taking the expansion for the year to 1.9% – the highest growth rate since 2007
Financial pressures faced in the NHS mean it is ‘an increasing challenge’ to meet the 18-week waiting time target for treatment across England, auditors have warned today
