Labour activists should make the most of the fact that Labour councils have set the lowest average council tax rises in the forthcoming local elections, the party's leadership has said.
Conservative local government leaders have hailed the party's decision to appoint a spokesman on town hall finance for the first time, as recognition of the issue's increasing political significance.
Local authorities have 'not woken up to the scale of the challenge' presented by the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act due to come into force in 2005, according to the commissioner...
The Conservative Party's review of waste and bureaucracy in the public services has already identified savings 'significantly in excess' of the £35bn-a-year target set, Oliver Letwin has told Public...
Chancellor Gordon Brown is being urged to clamp down on public sector spending because the rising tax burden it has generated is not being matched by increased productivity, according to business...
When the NHS was established in 1948, Nye Bevan believed its effect on the nation's health would be so profound that future governments would not have to increase its budget greatly.
The prudential framework for local authority borrowing is about to have a major impact on Glasgow's regeneration, according to the city council's chief executive, George Black.
Watchdog MPs have called on the government to remedy a bizarre situation in which MPs asking official Parliamentary Questions have less chance of extracting information from Whitehall departments...
One in five civil servants will face the sack unless they significantly boost their performance under reforms that sound the death knell for the career mandarin.
Local and regional government leaders are urging Chancellor Gordon Brown to stop opposing a substantial increase in the European Commission's budget, so that the UK's four poorest regions can...
Too many new childcare places are being created with no thought given to how they can be sustained once public funds are exhausted, a senior MP said this week.
In the weeks since the Commons narrowly approved the government's controversial plans for top-up fees in England, university chiefs in Scotland have been anxiously awaiting the outcome of a review...
Radical reform of the council tax is on the way but it will be at least 12 months before a replacement system is drawn up and the details finalised, Public Finance has been told.
Northern Ireland's Department of the Environment has established a team of specialist officers to tackle a growing problem of illegal waste dumping. Dozens of unauthorised dumps have been created on...
The regeneration of 39 of the most deprived areas of England is being hindered by poor financial reporting and strained relations with local authorities, the National Audit Office warned this week.
Officials at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs have indicated that a review of its anti-fuel poverty initiative is likely to reform the way cash is distributed to those most in...
Millions of pounds are being poured into rundown estates in northern England as ministers deny claims that too much housing investment is concentrated in the South.
London motorists who obstruct traffic flows by blocking box junctions or disregarding one-way signs will have to hand over £100 fines to local authorities from April.
The government is planning a crackdown against 31 councils on a secret Whitehall hit list identifying those likely to set inflation-busting council tax increases, as the issue dominated the political...
Welsh Assembly ministers must take immediate action to stimulate housing demand in the Heads of Valleys region because the issue is hindering regeneration initiatives, experts have warned.
Twenty-six councils have won promotion and nine have slipped down the rankings as the Audit Commission published the first annual update of the Comprehensive Performance Assessments on December 18.
