With education set to take the lion's share of public spending increases, what are the prospects for other departments? The chancellor will have little room to manoeuvre in the Comprehensive...
Nurses and doctors from developing countries can no longer be poached by the NHS, but other richer nations do not have the same restrictions. Ministers Rosie Winterton and Gareth Thomas call for a...
Self-governing trust schools are New Labour's latest big idea for education. But confusion still reigns over their structure and how they will be governed in practice. Tash Shifrin investigates
Gordon Brown gave an unambiguous signal that the days of plenty are over for the public sector as he used his Budget statement to announce that four Whitehall departments would have their expenditure...
The Commons Public Accounts Committee has criticised the £5.2m Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain project in Hyde Park, saying poor management has led to spiralling costs.
Chancellor Gordon Brown this week injected further momentum into the government's devolution agenda but the tone emerging from Number 11 points towards a regionalist approach at the expense of...
As education leaders rushed to praise a Budget that promised huge increases in education spending, it emerged that the Treasury's familiar sleight of hand was in evidence.
New Treasury guidance will cap the number of Private Finance Initiative contracts lasting more than 25 years and limit those that include 'soft' services such as cleaning.
Some of the nation's finest minds are trying to track down the culprits for the soaring NHS deficits. Andy McKeon knows where the bodies are buried and says all will be revealed once the reforms...
Yes, the government missed its 2004/05 target for reducing the number of children in poverty but it has made some heartening progress towards the overall goal. Ian Kearns explains what it needs to...
The Treasury's public sector pay committee has created a 'tension' between ministers' policy of local pay flexibility and the chancellor's requirement that all major remuneration decisions must pass...
Local authorities have made efficiency savings, yet ever-increasing social care demands continue to put pressure on their budgets. It's time to come up with a fair and sustainable system of funding
Up to 80 cottage hospitals in England are threatened with closure and yet NHS community hospitals are meant to be the next big thing. Tash Shifrin investigates
At first glance the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive scheme seems to be a good idea. But it does away with the principle of equalisation, distributing funds regardless of councils' needs or...
In this increasingly litigious society, local authorities have become used to being sued for everything from cracked pavements to housing problems. But is there now a new and serious threat to be...
Next week's Budget looks like being a return to form for the chancellor, thanks to a big rise in tax receipts. But is he on course to hit his political as well as economic targets? Peter Riddell...
In 2003, angry pensioners were taking to the streets as council tax soared, unchecked by government. This year, ministers cracked the whip and councils meekly complied. Tony Travers explains what's...
The government narrowly failed to meet its ambitious target to reduce child poverty by a quarter by 2005, but senior sources are confident that the Department for Work and Pensions will achieve its...
Treasury officials will shortly report to Chancellor Gordon Brown on the financial implications of devolving new powers to city-regions, as the local government reform agenda took another firm step...
Fears of a multibillion pound black hole in public sector pensions have brought forward calls for the chancellor to amend his fiscal rules. John Hawksworth analyses the options and calls on the...
Productivity in the NHS is at best stagnant, despite the record sums of money invested in the health service by the government, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
