Manchester has become the first local authority to sign a contract to improve council housing directly through the Private Finance initiative.
The contract was signed on March 25 three and a half...
Stock transfers have suffered a further blow after council tenants in Stockport voted against moving to a new housing association.
Stockport, which has just over 13,000 homes, was the largest urban...
Private and voluntary sector organisations could apply to become NHS foundation trusts under proposals being put forward by Health Secretary Alan Milburn, it emerged this week.
In a move that will...
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...
Plans to give council and housing association tenants a financial stake in their homes look unlikely to get off the ground after research failed to find support from landlords and lenders.
The...
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...
Four London boroughs are being forced to cut the discounts they offer council tenants who buy their homes through the right to buy scheme, despite telling Whitehall they want to retain existing...
The relentless push for public services improvement has provided a burgeoning market for the Improvement and Development Agency, which plans to expand to meet rising demand from local government....
Backbench Labour MPs leading the rebellion against government plans to introduce elite foundation hospitals have indicated they expect significant concessions in the controversial Bill when it is...
Councils hoping to transfer their housing have been warned against creating a single new landlord for the entire stock.
New guidance on large-scale voluntary transfers, published this week by the...
The government has given way to protests over the scrapping of the local authority social housing grant (LASHG) and announced an extra £110m in transitional funding to keep affordable housing...
Housing associations must recruit a new breed of leader if they are to thrive as effective businesses in the twenty-first century, their regulator has warned.
Baroness Dean, chair of the Housing...
A former local authority chief executive this week started work as the UK's newest crimebuster. Powers came into force on February 25 which allow Jane Earl to go after the assets of criminals as...
A new partnership body set up to boost housing in the Northwest has admitted that it must attract substantial private money because of uncertainty over government funding.
Elevate East Lancashire...
Information technology contractor ITNet has been removed from Islington council's housing and council tax benefits contract. The London borough will take the service back in house on May 1....
The Liberal Democrats outlined their alternative 'cash-back' Budget this week, pledging free care for the elderly and the abolition of tuition and top-up fees for students, but no increases in public...
Bradford has become the first local authority to have its early loan redemption fees paid to help fund a housing transfer.
The city council's handover of almost 25,000 homes to Bradford Community...
Unison Scotland has called for the effective abolition of the Private Finance Initiative in a manifesto launched ahead of May's elections for the country's Parliament.
It said: 'The time has come...
Local authorities are locked in talks with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister over whether they should slash the discounts on offer to council tenants under the right to buy scheme.
Lower...
The government will propose delaying the imposition of fines on social service departments that delay discharges from hospital, following a crucial defeat in the House of Lords.
On February 17,...
Councils and other public sector bodies are beefing up their risk management policies in the face of huge rises in insurance premiums.
They are also being forced to absorb larger excesses a...
Councils are failing to detect four-fifths of housing benefit frauds, the National Audit Office said this week. The government has also made the system more complex and prone to fraud, despite...
Visions of 200,000 new houses, millions of pounds to regenerate declining areas in the Midlands and the North, and at least £1bn for houses for key workers dominated Sustainable Communities, John...
? ??ew Foster, the outgoing controller of the Audit Commission, talks to Mike Thatcher
Vincent Square will be a much quieter place when Sir Andrew Foster finally moves on later this year. The...
Councils hoping to pump millions of pounds into rundown housing were dealt a major blow this week when the government closed off one possible route for borrowing money.
