The Northern Ireland Assembly's finance and personnel committee gave a surprise endorsement to the Private Finance Initiative and other forms of public-private partnerships in a report published this...
Sir Andrew Foster will take over as head of the Best Value Inspectorate after Wendy Thomson was poached by 10 Downing Street to head up a new team advising Tony Blair on public service reform.
Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers has signalled the roll-out of local Public Service Agreements to all top-tier authorities by announcing £300m of unsupported credit approvals (UCAs) for...
Andrew Pinder, the e-envoy, has admitted to a fundamental difference of opinion with Tony Blair on the government's strategy for delivering services over the Internet.
The Local Government Association has proposed setting up an independent commission to examine the long-term future of local government finance and agree 'a fair deal' for councils.
College lecturers went on their first national strike for a decade this week, causing disruption during exam time for students at 290 colleges across England.
The Private Finance Initiative this week emerged as an unlikely and crucial general election issue with the government's record on public spending being attacked on several fronts.
Ideological differences between the main political parties on how to improve public services emerged this week as the general election campaign finally got under way.
GPs are angry that much is evident. The actions of those who on May Day closed their surgeries to all but emergency cases led family doctors to be mentioned in the same breath as the militant anti-...
The Improvement and Development Agency (Idea) has signed a ground-breaking deal to provide an e-procurement portal that could create one of the 'largest marketplaces in Europe'.
The government is to abolish the present system of local authority capital controls in favour of proposals in the green paper on local government finance.
Nearly one in five further education colleges is facing financial problems, despite £3bn being pumped into the sector by the government, according to an all-party committee of MPs.
Plans by four councils to experiment with all-postal ballots to increase voter turnout at local elections could be scuppered by the imminent General Election
Local authorities may be set to receive £44bn in next year's finance settlement, an inflation-busting increase of 6.7% but, with two different funding options on offer, 47 councils are left more in...
On December 11, managers at the London Borough of Hackney will learn whether the current crisis caused by a gaping hole in the budget will be compounded by a mass walkout of council staff.
Councils have been placed at the forefront of transforming run-down city centres in the biggest shake-up in British urban regeneration policies for almost 25 years.
Nearly half of English councils have increased their rents by more than the government's recommended level, according to a Local Government Association report.
In politics, appearance is everything. With a general election looming, ministers have their beady eyes trained on the all-important National Health Service.
