Local authorities breathed a sigh of relief this week as the government endorsed CIPFA's Best Value Accounting Code, accepting the argument that self-regulation is preferable to secondary legislation...
Government warnings to local authorities to keep down council tax rises may have been heeded. Early forecasts, based on counties' figures, suggest bills will rise by about 6% on average in line...
Auditors could be forced into making political decisions for which they are ill-equipped under the new Best Value regime, a House of Commons committee was told this week.
The government was this week accused of being the country's most wasteful landlord as new figures show that almost one in five public sector properties is empty.
A new video featuring ethnic minority civil servants will be taken into local communities to try to change Whitehall's 'all white' image, Cabinet Office minister Mo Mowlam announced this week.
Cabinet secretary Sir Richard Wilson this week admitted there was scope for changing the way government departments are funded, and that they could even consider bidding for money from a central 'pot...
French, Italian, Portuguese and Belgian environment ministers were gathering in Brussels this week to back calls for 'Car-Free Day 2000' to be extended across the European Union. The launch on...
Health Secretary Alan Milburn has sought to draw a line under the prime minister's ill-judged comments on health spending last month with a conciliatory message that big money will be pumped into the...
Conservatives in local government this week defended the sacking of John Redwood, one of the few high-profile members of William Hague's shadow cabinet, claiming he was part of the 'party's past'.
The government's attempts to modernise Whitehall were stepped up this week with the publication of the second report of the Public Services Productivity Panel.
Three executive agencies have been forced to take urgent action to improve their services as a result of a critical report from the Public Services Productivity Panel.
The Audit Commission should have its own House of Commons select committee in order to give the public sector watchdog's reports more weight, it was proposed this week.
Housing associations are being asked to provide new management data for the Housing Corporation, to tie in with the introduction of Best Value in local authorities.
A House of Commons select committee is expected to recommend a merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise in an attempt to streamline both organisations.
The benefits system is still losing billions of pounds of public money due to fraud and inefficiency in spite of attempts to improve the service, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has found.
The Private Finance Initiative is expensive and inflexible and deflects from government priorities, a House of Commons Treasury committee was told this week.
The chairman of an independent inquiry looking at the pattern of the school year has criticised the present system as 'medieval' and warned that 'the status quo is not an option'.
Scottish Homes is being turned into an agency of the Scottish Executive in a move to bring together the rights of tenants living in council and housing association properties.
Hundreds of teaching jobs are at risk following the ending of Section 11 grants to local authorities. The grants are paid for teachers to help residents for whom English is a foreign language.
