The government has been told it should do more to reform the “outdated and inadequate” way in which public money has traditionally been allocated, despite improvements in the Spending Review.
The forthcoming shake-up of government procurement may be undermined by the difficulty of excluding major suppliers even in the worst cases of poor performance, a report has warned.
The next government will have just days to avert a crisis in the prison service, with English and Welsh jails on the brink of running out of places, a leading think-tank has warned.
Prevention must be embedded into the next government’s spending programme if it is to avoid higher taxes or a deterioration in public services, a leading think-tank has warned.
The next government has been urged to launch a one-year spending review within its first few weeks to avoid a damaging cliff edge at the end of the year.
Longer-term certainty over departmental funding will improve value for money and give government spending plans more credibility, the Institute for Government has said.
Most public services will remain worse in four years’ time than they were just before Covid-19 – and most of them were already worse than they were in 2010 – CIPFA and the Institute for Government’s...
Northern Ireland’s civil servants have warned that “sub-optimal” budgets will lead to further cuts that could constrain council services and worsen court delays.
To get brilliant people from the private sector or local government into Whitehall, the Civil Service needs to fix its reputation, increase pay and ensure there are sufficient senior roles to...
Ministers should use Wednesday’s budget as an opportunity to provide a sustainable long term funding settlement for the social care sector or risk exacerbating existing care issues, experts have said.
Measures in the Autumn Statement favour councils in well-off areas that already raise lots of money from council tax, while those in deprived areas that already bore the brunt of austerity miss out,...
Autumn Statement plans to keep public bodies’ spending tight from 2025 onwards are unlikely to actually be followed when the time comes, economists have said.
The government’s plan to temporarily cap energy bills for households and businesses will likely lead to higher borrowing and increased pressure on public finances, experts have said.
The new prime minister would face a £23bn cost if they want to help shelter households from the ongoing cost-of-living crisis by scaling up a previously announced scheme with inflation, a leading...
Some regions across the UK are likely to miss out on initial development funding as the government directs its support towards the most deprived areas first, according to experts.
A lack of comprehensive data is hampering the government’s ability to track how funding cuts have impacted councils in England, according to the Institute for Government.
“Poor decisions” made by the government during its initial Covid-19 response were a result of a lack of long-term strategy and poor use of evidence, a think-tank has claimed.
