Labour's political reform of local government faces its strongest grassroots opposition yet with elected members of a London council threatening unlawful action.
A local authority insisted this week that it had taken steps to reduce stress among employees after paying a record £203,000 to a former warden at a site for gypsies.
Many so-called regeneration projects are, in effect, schemes to help manage the irreversible decline of neighbourhoods caused by low demand for social housing, according a study commissioned by the...
The Scottish Executive is facing a showdown with Westminster next week over the treatment of asylum seekers. Home Secretary Jack Straw is anxious to persuade Scotland to accept an extra 1,000 asylum...
The government's drive to deliver public services via the Internet is being undermined by Whitehall's 'risk-averse' culture and its inability to respond to change quickly, the first major...
Acute shortages of social housing and the unwillingness of some councils to provide accommodation for ex-prisoners are adding to the likelihood of people reoffending after they leave prison, says a...
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.
Schools minister Estelle Morris has conceded that the government is creating and promoting a market for the private sector to take over the running of failing schools.
League tables could be introduced across the criminal justice system after a critical National Audit Office study found up to £84m could be saved by eliminating waste and spreading good practice.
A High Court victory by homeless families who objected to being placed in seaside accommodation will add to the spiralling cost of homelessness in London, local authorities warned this week.
The National Audit Office should be granted greater powers to inspect private companies undertaking public sector contracts, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, David Davis MP, said last...
A West Country council is to continue to work with the IT services company CSL in spite of chaos caused to its benefits payments by the privatised IT operation.
A rise of 7% has been forecast in council tax almost three times the rate of inflation in the next financial year, with householders facing an average £56 increase in their bills.
Directly elected mayors for major cities in England and Wales could be in place as early as spring 2001 as the government this week signalled it wanted to speed legislation through parliament.
The Treasury is to more than double the number of cross-government spending programmes but has played down claims that this is an assault on the financial independence of individual Whitehall...
The influential Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) at the Cabinet Office is to investigate which public services can be delivered electronically and to examine the respective roles of both the...
Housing maintenance was this week placed ahead of long-term management improvements when local authorities were given an extra £67m to spend on council house repairs next year.
Auditors this week demanded that European commissioners seize a 'historic opportunity' and overhaul working practices in the European Union to stop the annual haemorrhaging of millions of pounds.
A major boost to the Private Finance Initiative in housing came this week with the government's announcement of four PFI schemes, totalling £185m, for the refurbishment of council houses.
