Local authorities have attacked the Audit Commission's 'unacceptable' plan to hike its audit fees by up to a third by 2011 and are fighting a last-ditch battle to kill off the proposals.
Most council-owned housing companies are back on course to achieve the decent homes target after receiving £400m more than expected from the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.
The Private Finance Initiative is delivering real benefits but needs sustained political will and the right environment to succeed, business leaders have told a Scottish Parliament inquiry into...
The former head of communications watchdog Ofcom, Stephen Carter, has been appointed chief of strategy and principal adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Carter, currently chief executive of...
Business process outsourcing is growing rapidly in local government, as cash-strapped councils agree huge deals with private firms to provide a range of back-office services. Anat Arkin examines the...
We received an impressive tally of high-scoring entries to our annual sprint through the year's public sector events. So very well done to our winner, Karen Franklin of Spalding in Lincolnshire, who...
Local government minister John Healey has urged councils to look beyond the 'here and now' and face up to some of the long-term, deep-rooted problems that affect their communities.
Another day, another departmental disaster: can't the government get anything right? Colin Talbot takes an unseasonal swipe at civil service blunders and asks what's behind Whitehall's annus...
Where next for the IPPR? Judy Hirst talks to its new co-directors about a more consensual style of politics and why two thinking heads are better than one
Local authorities that back government plans to increase house building will receive £732m to fund better community services over the next three years.
A statutory duty should be placed on councils that fail to respond to the challenge of climate change, experts said this week as they painted a gloomy picture of progress to date.
Love it or loathe it, the PFI has been a part of the public sector for more than a decade. But with changes in government policies and in its accounting treatment, what future, if any, does it have...
English councils outside the capital are set to clash with their London counterparts as local authorities scrabble for resources in a tight fiscal climate.
When the winners of the first phase of the Department for Work and Pensions' Pathways to Work contracts were announced in September, the sense of disappointment among voluntary organisations was...
The Private Finance Initiative has come under fire for chronic delays in tendering times, lack of business and negotiating skills among public sector teams and a shortage of bidders.
There are big ambitions for the Comprehensive Area Assessment: for it to judge how well councils are serving their communities, and for it to be a more nimble form of inspection than its predecessor...
Public and private sector organisations are ignoring most energy-saving advice aimed at making them cut their carbon emissions, government auditors said this week.
Hospitals in England have been given four months and almost £60m to carry out a 'deep clean', which the government hopes will eradicate healthcare-acquired infections such as MRSA.
