'We're doing our bit, the Audit Commission is doing its bit, now you do your bit,' is the message that will be sent to ministers from the Local Government Association conference next week.
Financial control of a flagship health service partnership in Bedfordshire was so poor that the scheme had effectively collapsed within months, a District Audit report has found.
International Development Secretary Clare Short threw out a challenge to accountancy bodies when she told the CIPFA annual conference that 'the future of international development is in the hands of...
The increasing influence of special advisers in government departments need not threaten the traditional role of civil servants, according to the permanent secretary at the Office of the Deputy Prime...
Moves to resolve the two-tier workforce in local government could now face a logjam after Unison members demanded a reopening of negotiations with the government this week.
There may have been relief when the draft Local Government Bill published with requisite fanfare by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott last week finally emerged.
Stock transfers could become more expensive if large urban authorities are encouraged to switch their housing to a series of registered social landlords.
Walsall Borough Council is almost certain to be the second authority to suffer direct takeover by the government after an Audit Commission report this week castigated its continuing financial...
An influential Labour backbencher this week claimed that the government is unlikely to grant substantial autonomy to local authorities, despite acknowledging that it must help councils improve...
The government is 'not hostile' to the idea of a local income tax and will shortly set up a high-level working group to examine the balance of local authority funding, the Treasury's chief economic...
Central government must give councils a 'level playing field' in how they finance capital projects and stop forcing them to use the Private Finance Initiative, according to an expert panel.
Nick Raynsford has promised there will be 'no backsliding' by ministers on reform of local government as he outlined details of the long-awaited draft Bill published this week.
The government's refusal to allow local authorities to offer in-house stakeholder pensions could lead to a surge in popularity of the Trades Union Congress's version of the retirement package.
Unison is gearing up for a head-on collision with the government as its annual conference looks set to reverse the union's support for ministerial proposals on the two-tier workforce.
Labour has retained control of the Association of London Government, following a decision to divide representation of the capital's hung councils evenly between the three major parties.
Unison Scotland has accused councils of manipulating public sector comparators to win approval for Private Finance Initiative schemes, after a senior auditor said PSCs were often based on 'spurious'...
The number of elderly people being readmitted to hospital soon after discharge has risen sharply and measures designed to ease NHS bedblocking could make matters even worse.
