Councils have accused the government of penalising them for innovation by denying them cash for policies which are later recommended and funded by the government.
A rise of 7% has been forecast in council tax almost three times the rate of inflation in the next financial year, with householders facing an average £56 increase in their bills.
The influential Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) at the Cabinet Office is to investigate which public services can be delivered electronically and to examine the respective roles of both the...
The National Association of Head Teachers has accused local education authorities of undermining school self-management and creating a dependency culture because of the way they distribute grants to...
Two senior government ministers have set out to find a cure for the plague of form-filling and local government is due to be one of the chief beneficiaries.
An improvement agency covering the whole of the public sector in Scotland could be set up, following the publication next month of a report by the Best Value Taskforce.
The Local Government Association has accused education minister Estelle Morris of 'scaremongering' after she warned that a further 15 local authorities might have their services privatised in a drive...
Rural districts are likely to benefit hugely from radical changes in the way Scotland's 15 health boards are funded. But the new system is not likely to be implemented before 2001/02, it emerged this...
The chief secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Smith, is to create a series of Service Delivery Agreements spanning the whole of government, he reveals in this week's Public Finance .
Home Secretary Jack Straw has been forced to go back to the drawing board after it emerged that his draft Freedom of Information Bill contravened international agreements on the environment.
Last weekend, the European Union made its first attempt to develop 'an area of freedom, security and justice'. EU leaders gathered at a special summit in Tampere, Finland, to commit to a common...
Housing could lose out to other local authority services once all council capital allocations are thrown into a single pot, according to an expert on housing finance.
In another age, there were people known as Kremlinologists. These experts would be wheeled out on British television and radio to discuss the significance of every minor change in personnel made to...
Liverpool's local education authority is being pushed into privatising most of its services without being allowed to consider the alternatives, ministers were told this week.
A central government crackdown that will allow greater ministerial intervention into failing schools, councils and police authorities was formally outlined this week.
The government is to offer financial incentives to keep 16 to 18-year-olds in education and training as part of a package to stem 'a lost generation' of youngsters.
The government is to fund its proposed expansion of further education through more use of the Private Finance Initiative in the sixth-form sector, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Alan Milburn said...
Michael Bichard, permanent secretary to the Department for Education and Employment, has been created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.