It would seem the Department for Education and Skills has learned its lesson.
The funding allocations for schools descended into confusion and mutual recrimination earlier this year, following the...
The government needs to target its proposed hike in higher education cash more effectively to those who need it, a Commons committee claimed this week. It also argued that plans to improve university...
Town hall leaders this week hit out at ministers for relegating councils to the sidelines in the rush to reform public services, and promised to 'fight for local government'.
Scottish Water has defended a controversial scheme to pay bonuses to all of its employees at a time when it is being criticised for soaring charges.
Politicians and business leaders claimed the...
Network Rail has announced plans to cut £1.3bn off its spending by 2006/07 through efficiency savings equivalent to 20% of its costs.
The company issued its business plan in March, in which it...
The controversy over the Inland Revenue's decision to sell its property portfolio to a company based in an offshore tax haven took a new twist this week when the Treasury was asked to clarify...
The success of the government's plans to introduce university top-up fees 'depends crucially' on ministers combating potential students' fear of spiralling debts, experts have warned.
Local Government Association chair Sir Jeremy Beecham has joined the Treasury committee that oversees preparation for UK entry into the euro.
Beecham told Public Finance that he had not seen the...
Critical inspection reports can undermine local government's attempts to improve services, the outspoken director of finance at the London Borough of Hackney said at the CIPFA conference at Harrogate...
Whitehall officials have held out an olive branch to local education authorities in an effort to quell the damaging row over schools funding that has been dogging the government for weeks.
Stephen...
The government 'talks the talk' on granting the public sector more local autonomy, but when problems arise it immediately reverts to its centralist tendencies, the director of the Institute for...
Liverpool plans to spend more than £45m to make a success of its status as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, after it secured the UK nomination on June 4.
It defeated bids from five other...
Rail regulator Tom Winsor has admitted that he will find it more difficult to hold the public interest company Network Rail to account than he did its private sector predecessor Railtrack.
Speaking...
Lack of financial management in schools was a 'critical factor' in this year's funding crisis, the Local Government Association claimed this week.
In comments likely to further inflame the debate...
Schools with budget surpluses must be forced to hand them over to their struggling counterparts to help solve the education funding crisis, a teaching union has demanded.
The National Association...
Local government employers this week rubbished union proposals for a £6.50 an hour minimum wage in the sector, claiming it would add £2bn to council wage bills and force £100-a-year tax rises on to...
Future investment in public services will suffer if Britain fails to join the euro, European commissioner Neil Kinnock has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance , Kinnock, who is vice...
Leaders of business and public sector workers have exchanged insults over the role of private firms in providing public services.
Confederation of British Industry president Sir John Egan told the...
Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to allow schools to use money earmarked for building improvements to ease budget shortages violates good accounting practice, CIPFA has warned.
The...
Scotland's deputy first minister, Jim Wallace, is to take on the task of reviving its flagging economy, at the heart of First Minister Jack McConnell's new administration.
Wallace, the Liberal...
Anyone who thought that urban development corporations were as dead as the Thatcher government that created them should think again.
More than five years after the last generation of UDCs closed,...
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council is failing to meet its statutory duties to vulnerable children, and its services for adults are in need of 'radical overhaul', inspectors have found.
A damning...
Foundation trusts will increase inequity and lead to wage inflation and aggressive staff poaching, the Commons health select committee said this week.
The committee's report, which was published to...
The Commons' education select committee has launched an inquiry into the row over schools funding, calling on standards minister David Miliband to explain an alleged £530m shortfall.
Chair Barry...
