Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has told council leaders he wants to freeze council tax bills from 2008 prior to introducing a local income tax.
Ahead of taking up the premiership, Gordon Brown has promised a redistribution of power down from central to local government. Is this just fantasy politics or will the new PM deliver the goods?
The recent UK-wide elections have highlighted the fact that there is not one NHS but four. Noel Plumridge examines what binds the different health services and what sets them apart
Pre-school intervention programmes reap huge rewards for society. But the government needs to use the next Comprehensive Spending Review to do some joined-up funding of local initiatives, argues...
Health professionals have reacted angrily to news that the NHS 'underspent' by around £500m last year as it attempted to recover its £547m deficit, claiming patients and staff have suffered as a...
The Northern Ireland Assembly has resolved to introduce free personal care for elderly and disabled people, nine years after a royal commission recommended it.
The top tier of the civil service in Scotland has been radically reorganised to fit the slimmer Cabinet introduced by the new Scottish Nationalist Party minority government.
Local authorities will soon be asked to help Whitehall meet its strict child poverty targets as part of the government's ambitious plan to eradicate the problem by 2020.
Vocational training for school children should be delivered in partnership with local businesses, which are then exempted from their rates. This would boost youngsters' skills and also benefit small...
Half a million people will need to be transported each day to the 2012 Olympics in London. But so far only £350m is being invested in expanding the capital's transport infrastructure. Christian...
Most of the UK's public sector finance managers have spent at least a year working in a private sector environment and the two are increasingly trading top staff, research has found.
Premier-in-waiting Gordon Brown has promised a big shift in 'the way we govern'. So what will this mean in practice for the public sector? James Blitz predicts less spin and more focus on domestic...
The Lyons report suggested a number of ways forward for local government finance. From abolishing capping to localising the business rate, councils must be prepared to seize the initiative and the...
It's the public services, stupid. As Ireland's voters prepare for a general election, the focus is on problems in the country's huge state sector. The rival parties all have their own solutions,...
By using the Comprehensive Spending Review as a clean sheet assessment, the government has a chance to satisfy the public's demand for better services while keeping spending under control
The government's initial response to Sir Michael Lyons' report might have seemed muted, but the small print tells a different story. Ministers have not only accepted the core thesis, they have taken...
In the end, 'Super Thursday' wasn't meltdown for New Labour but neither was it a springboard for success. Tony Travers looks at the party's prospects after the local, Scottish and Welsh elections...
Senior civil servants have called for an immediate review of the Home Office's resources following the creation of the Ministry of Justice this week, claiming that they need more funds to manage the...
Cabinet Office ministers have backed down from their hardline stance and will recommence pay discussions with Whitehall's striking civil servants, Public Finance has learnt.
The system of scrutinising public services in Scotland is not 'fit for purpose' and needs to be radically reformed, council leaders and chief officials have concluded.
