The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has launched the second stage of its commission to develop a plan to localise public services and council funding in Scotland.
Nearly two-thirds of Scots would be willing to pay more in council tax if the money raised was guaranteed to boost local services like schools and adult social care, a poll has found
A committee of MPs has called on the government to scrap the so-called bedroom tax after finding that the reform had placed a ‘cruel burden’ on vulnerable people.
Scotland’s council tax freeze will continue for a seventh year after Finance Secretary John Swinney announced that the funding given to councils for 2014/15 would be increased in cash terms.
Holyrood’s finance committee has welcomed the focus on preventative spending in the Scottish Government’s Budget, but warned the approach could be held back by other parts of the public sector.
Scotland’s government departments, councils and agencies must gear up for tougher standards of governance, irrespective of the outcome of next September’s independence referendum, the chief executive...
Scotland’s public finances are robust enough to support independence and will only get stronger should the country leave the Union, the Scottish Government said today as it set out its vision for...
Local communities in England lose £4.1bn each year to the UK’s devolved nations through the ‘outdated’ Barnett Formula for distributing public spending, the Local Government Association has claimed...
Scottish ministers have hit back at this week’s bleak Institute for Fiscal Studies scenario for independence, claiming that Scotland's control over its own economic destiny could create more than 100...
An independent Scotland would need to make ‘significant’ cuts in public spending, or increase taxes, in order to put its public finances on a sustainable long-term footing, the Institute for Fiscal...
The merger of Scotland’s eight police forces into one national service faces ‘significant challenges’ if it is to secure the £1.1bn worth of savings expected from the reform, auditors have warned.
Policy making by public bodies in Scotland should be opened up to a much more representative cross-section of the population, according to a report commissioned by the Left-leaning Jimmy Reid...
Independence could give Scotland the opportunity to build a tax regime that is both economically competitive and fiscally sound, according to two new reports from the Scottish Government’s Fiscal...
Chancellor George Osborne’s pledge to keep Britain’s public finances in surplus could drive the Scots out of the United Kingdom, a former first minister of Scotland has told Public Finance
Scotland’s 32 local authorities voted today to impose a two-year pay settlement on their staff after almost a year of negotiations with the trade unions failed to bring about an agreement
Scottish Government ministers should set out more details about how much public money would be available to pay for the state pension if the country votes for independence, financial experts have said
Councils and other social landlords in Scotland face a rising tide of rent arrears as a consequence of the UK coalition’s ‘bedroom tax’, according to an expert report for the Scottish Parliament’s...
The National Health Service in Scotland will be reformed to provide genuine 24-hour, seven-day-a-week services, Health Secretary Alex Neil has told an international conference in Edinburgh
The health service in Scotland must tighten its long-term financial planning and change the way it delivers services if it is to cope with impending budget cuts, Audit Scotland said today.
The powers of Scotland’s local spending watchdog, the Accounts Commission, should be reviewed to take account of councils’ increasing use of arms-length external organisations (Aleos), the commission...
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has launched a council-led commission looking at how to localise public services and reform town hall funding in Scotland.
Funding for GP services has fallen by £400m in real terms over four years, the Royal College of GPs revealed today. It warned has left a ‘black hole’ in the finances of many practices