Almos are the popular answer for cash-strapped councils wanting to upgrade their homes without hiving them off. But their powers are limited compared with housing associations. John Perry explains...
The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury is unafraid to speak of huge Whitehall cuts in his plan for better public services. Joseph McHugh heard his battle strategy
Is our system of government in terminal decline, obsessed by spin and central control? Sir Christopher Foster, a former adviser to both Labour and Tory ministers, thinks so. He uses privatisation of...
The Scottish Executive has published its first infrastructure investment plan, setting out a long-term, multibillion-pound scheme for improving Scotland's public services.
Public services in Scotland are delivered as part of a patchwork operation that is starting to fray. Minister Tom McCabe is stitching together a reform package that might begin with a reorganisation...
Beefing up city and county regions might paradoxically be the most effective way of putting the local into 'new localism' in the twenty-first century, argues Gerry Stoker
Risk registers are becoming ever-more numerous and elaborate, but they are not worth the Word documents they are printed on if they fail to engage with the everyday business of their organisation
Having overseen the Department of Health's 'big bang' NHS policies, Andy McKeon now scrutinises their impact from an Audit Commission standpoint. Karen Day spoke to him
Neighbourhood boards are the latest big idea for getting the public to improve the services they use. But will this US invention work here, asks Chris Skelcher
If the forthcoming social care green paper avoids spelling out the cost of long-term care for older people, Sir Derek Wanless's review is likely to be less coy, argues Paul Gosling
Pathfinder programmes set up to boost demand for housing in the North and Midlands have struggled to spend money on worthwhile projects, says the Audit Commission.
An independent report into the escalating cost of Britain's exam system published this week has spotlighted what it claims is a 'huge amount of superfluous or duplicated information'.
Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred this week stepped in to heal a potential breach with foundation trusts' regulator Monitor over the troubled Bradford Hospitals trust.
People are being attracted back to Britain's cities by better buildings and public services, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told urban planners this week.
The Office for National Statistics must be granted the same independence from political interference as the National Audit Office if public confidence in the UK's economic data is to be restored, a...
The Inland Revenue has denied that it was unable to cope with thousands of last-minute tax submissions this week, despite acknowledging that its website ground to a halt as the January 31 deadline...
Scottish Executive permanent secretary John Elvidge has confirmed that civil service jobs will be lost in Scotland as part of the Gershon efficiency review.
A Conservative government would save £35bn on government spending by 2007/08 under the spending plans outlined by Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin this week.
Serious storms that battered Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England, leaving thousands of people without power, prompted an emergency statement from ministers this week.
A US-style model of care that aims to help asthma and arthritis sufferers stay out of hospital is to be rolled out across the health service this year.
