A last-minute £188m cash injection into this week's local government finance settlement may not be enough to head off mounting pay and service pressures, warn councils.
William Hague has promised that the next Conservative government would 'deregulate' schools and hospitals as part of a drive to boost standards in public services.
The most expensive building venture undertaken by English Partnerships, the government's national urban regeneration and development agency, faces its acid test this week when the London Borough of...
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has pledged an extra £100m for the government's neighbourhood renewal fund, doubling the amount of money being given to deprived areas next year. The money is in...
A new magazine went on sale in British hospitals this week, with the aim of raising an extra £5m to make patients' stays more comfortable. The team behind feelgood hope that sales of their glossy mix...
Cemeteries, it appears, have become perilous places. According to the Association of Burial Authorities, the problem is the gravestones themselves: one in ten, it says, is a public danger. Crumbling...
A year-long mass vaccination programme that cost £20m has prevented 50 deaths from meningitis C and almost completely eradicated the disease, the Department of Health said this week
An extra 39,000 recruits will be needed to meet the government's target of a net gain of 20,000 nurses in England by 2004, the Royal College of Nursing said this week.
The new head of the NHS Executive said this week that he aims to create a single health service, breaking down the barriers between public health, social services and the NHS.
Departing NHS finance director Colin Reeves has urged health authorities to spend the extra cash they have been given in the current financial year as a 'necessary first step in making the NHS Plan a...
A £900m European Investment Bank loan for London Underground's public- private partnership would 'compromise' government policy, a leading critic of the proposed partial privatisation of the Tube...
Local authorities may be set to receive £44bn in next year's finance settlement, an inflation-busting increase of 6.7% but, with two different funding options on offer, 47 councils are left more in...
Public services in rural areas, including education, social care, transport and post offices, face an annual audit to ensure they are meeting minimum performance targets.
The British Medical Association came under fire from the prime minister's office and NHS managers this week as doctors attacked the government's health service modernisation programme.
The hunt is on for a new finance director for the National Health Service after it emerged this week that Colin Reeves will leave the post in the New Year.
Ministers have spread most of next year's £2.9bn NHS increase evenly throughout the country, though some cash will be targeted at improving health in Labour's English heartlands.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn this week promised a significant expansion of the Private Finance Initiative and fired a broadside at those who have attacked the investment scheme.
Ministers have altered the formula used to calculate the funding allocations for health authorities, despite a pledge that it would remain unchanged until 2002, in order to pour extra cash into...