The high take-up of indicators related to volunteering and third sector organisations in the latest Local Area Agreements will benefit the most vulnerable people, the Cabinet Office has claimed.
How do you persuade people to stop behaving badly, or to do things for their own good? Not by bribing them or banning the activities, says Ann Rossiter, who argues that reinforcing social norms is...
New streamlined performance indicators for town halls mark a 'major cultural shift' in the way councils are measured and in their relationship with Whitehall, the communities and local government...
Representatives of up to 100,000 civil servants were this week discussing plans to stage walkouts over pay to coincide with the local government strike on July 16-17.
Health inequalities remain 'unacceptably' wide in England, according to ministers, who have urged primary care trusts and local authorities to close the gap.
Scotland's biggest council has dealt a blow to the Scottish Government's plans for a local income tax by warning that it could lose up to £133m a year.
Councils are being asked to urgently review their surveillance operations after allegations that they are using them for matters such as rubbish dumping.
Social landlords must not use the downturn in the housing market as an excuse for delaying development schemes, a leading civil servant told delegates.
Better use of public sector assets will form a vital part of the operational efficiency programme due to be launched by the Treasury within weeks, Yvette Cooper told the conference.
Councils are confused. On the one hand, Hazel Blears promises a new white paper to empower them. On the other, she is busy devolving control away from them to local citizens. But there's no...
Local government commissioning has become a much more complex and strategic exercise, involving a variety of different agencies and systems. John Tizard discusses what's needed to do the job properly
Sir Michael Lyons has said the concordat between central and local government, signed last year, falls short of the constitutional settlement proposed in his report on the future of local government.
The government is facing the biggest assault yet on its public sector pay policy after council workers in trade union Unison voted for 'sustained' industrial action - beginning with a two-day strike...
There's an ill wind blowing and it's threatening the government's housing and urban regeneration plans. But there are ways to mitigate the worst effects of the credit crunch
The government should have shown greater 'political courage' and implemented Sir Michael Lyons' proposals on town hall finance, former deputy prime minister John Prescott told delegates on June 17.
Tight financial settlements for town halls and the economic downturn might lead to greater financial freedoms for councils, the chair of the Local Government Association has predicted.
