Senior local government figures queued up to criticise the government this week after David Miliband announced that the council tax revaluation exercise was being shelved and the Lyons funding...
The architect of Whitehall's £40bn savings plan believes ministers will seek to achieve public sector efficiencies beyond the target date of 2008 because of the political imperative to restrain...
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are meant to be as one on the need for radical public sector reform. But as Blair embarks on one of his last Party conferences as PM, his quest for a legacy is bringing...
Local government leaders threw down a challenge to ministers this week, volunteering to take on a range of tough new responsibilities in exchange for greater freedom from central regulation.
A shake-up of policing in London could be jeopardised because the funds it needs have been swallowed up by the extra costs arising from the terrorist attacks on July 7 and 21, Public Finance has...
The rules of the much-debated Private Finance Initiative game are about to change. The Office for National Statistics is soon expected to start counting a new tranche of PFI deals against public...
More than 10% of the civil service could be outsourced to private or voluntary organisations under controversial reforms to job seekers' services being considered by the Department for Work and...
Senior trade unionists have called on Chancellor Gordon Brown to make good his commitment to the 2004 Warwick accord, amid concerns that public employers are using a loophole in the two-tier...
The London bombings are putting long-established 'community cohesion' policies to the test and threatening to hijack them in the name of a quick fix for terrorism.
The Scottish Executive is to call in external experts to advise on a root-and-branch review of public spending, the first significant cutback since devolution.
Business rates in Scotland are to be cut and brought into line with bills paid in England, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell announced this week.
NHS managers have rejected the Audit Commission's claim that poor financial management, rather than lack of funds, is responsible for the 'postcode lottery' in access to new drugs and treatments.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has challenged the government to make good its pledge to improve employment terms and conditions for hundreds of thousands of public sector agency staff.
New Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell has indicated that he could tighten up Whitehall's decision-making to help restore trust in the machinery of government.
As the TUC and government square up for their annual seaside contest, ministers face a movement riven with divisions and agonising about its future. Judy Hirst predicts tough times ahead for public...
