MPs this week called for a radical overhaul of regional grant distribution in England following fierce criticism of the current system.
Members of the Commons' Public Accounts Committee have...
The Audit Commission will take a more 'risk-sensitive' approach to inspections while Comprehensive Performance Assessments will 'focus on things that really matter', its new chief executive said this...
Northern Ireland's comptroller and auditor general John Dowdall, an honorary CIPFA member, was made a CB in the Queen's birthday honours list on June 14.
There were knighthoods for Metropolitan...
MPs have slammed the Department of Trade and Industry for failing to boost regeneration initiatives in deprived areas, despite throwing cash at problems in the form of grants.
Commenting in the...
|;¼ ?y criticised Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would be ranked as 'weak' if it were to undergo the same Audit Commission assessment process as local authorities, a...
Sir Andrew Foster has called for integrated teams of inspectors drawn from the various public sector watchdogs to be set up to make the scrutiny regime more co-ordinated and effective.
The...
The Food Standards Agency has come under fire from both environment minister Michael Meacher and consumer groups over the merits of organic and genetically modified food.
Heated exchanges have...
The government is creating a new NHS internal market and it is unclear whether it will lead to better patient care, the King's Fund claimed this week.
Ministers have consistently denied they are...
Councils could be given powers to take charge of empty homes and rent them to families in need.
Proposals to make better use of England's 300,000 long-standing empty homes were outlined on May 22...
Town hall leaders will use their top-level meeting with government ministers next week to demand assurances that councils will not be sidelined by the much-vaunted policy of 'new localism'.
Fears...
Watchdogs at the Office of Fair Trading have warned that their investigation into alleged anti-competition activities at the Environment Agency will be a complex affair.
The OFT launched its...
London boroughs have accused the government of 'spin' this week after five local education authorities were named and shamed as having the capital's worst performing schools, despite being recognised...
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,...
Electricity companies were this week attacked for failing to pass on to consumers the 'substantial' cost savings brought about by government-led reforms in the sector.
The National Audit Office,...
The government has failed to think through the impact of its plans to build hundreds of thousands of extra homes in the Southeast, according to the Commons committee scrutinising Deputy Prime...
Non-profit-distributing public interest companies have a 'potentially important role' to play in public service delivery, says a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research. But it warns...
Ministers are poised to create the first urban development corporation in ten years in an attempt to help house-building east of London.
Proposals for a UDC in Thurrock, Essex, were published by...
If Amey, the cash-strapped former linchpin of the support services contracting world, were to rise from the ashes, it was hardly surprising that it should be under a foreign flag. Overseas firms have...
Local government is still plagued with 'severe' recruitment and retention problems that are placing unmanageable burdens on staff, forcing councils to privatise services because they cannot afford to...
Local authority spending has risen by 26% since 1998, according to a new survey, with education leading the way.
The survey, by market intelligence service Key Note, shows that councils spent £77....
Action must be taken to tackle staff shortages in mental health services, two leading think-tanks said this week.
In separate publications, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH) and the...
MPs this week launched a scathing attack on the government's complex community regeneration initiatives, claiming that Whitehall has too much control over the budgets for local schemes.
The Commons...
Plans to bring US-style regeneration to Britain's city centres could be undermined by a row over funding.
From April 2004, Business Improvement Districts (Bids), credited with turning around the...
Taxpayers will be millions of pounds worse off during the next 30 years because ex-council homes are being renovated by new landlords rather than by local authorities, the National Audit Office said...
Local Government Association economic and environmental policy director Neil Kinghan is crossing back into central government to become director general for local and regional government at the...
