Plans to publish league tables showing the efficiency of housing associations and developers that receive government grant have been scrapped by the Housing Corporation.
Audit Commission inspectors have promised to discover more about the work of housing associations after just two-thirds of landlords said they were satisfied with a new inspection system.
A council-owned housing company in Nottinghamshire risks losing £62m after becoming the first arm's-length management organisation to receive no stars from inspectors.
A Scottish council is facing a claim of up to £1m from the housing association it set up to take over its houses under the government's voluntary transfer scheme.
Sefton Borough Council this week launched an inquiry into a controversial housing transfer ballot after allegations of corruption, bribery and intimidation.
Sixty years of the welfare state have failed to ensure that those in most need of public services have adequate access to them, leading to 'wide and persisting inequality', research has found.
It's difficult to see local government as the stuff of good theatre. But David Edgar's play uses infighting at a failing council to make some trenchant points about democracy. Joseph McHugh reports
The IRA's decision to end armed conflict finally gives Northern Ireland's citizens the chance of a normal life. But this means setting up democratic systems to replace political structures built...
Housing associations have withdrawn their objections to a government scheme for extending home ownership after ministers gave them guarantees over rent income and protection for tenants.
Britain still dumps most of its rubbish in landfill sites, instead of recycling it. But tough new European Union regulations are set to change all that. David Meilton reports on how councils are...
Many of Bexley council's school pupils were being educated in huts, with winds raging through broken windows. Then the chance of a £30m PFI refurbishment programme came along. Mike Ellsmore explains...
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's review of the local government grant formula must take greater account of the extra cost of providing essential public services to far-flung rural...
For all the talk of a dramatic urban renaissance, population flight from Britain's city centres to suburbia and the countryside continues apace. Tony Travers explains what needs to be done to reverse...
Birmingham City Council has this week confirmed that it will offer emergency loans to uninsured residents whose properties were damaged by the tornado that tore through the city on July 28.
Two-thirds of local authorities have had their plans to meet the decent homes target approved by ministers but almost 10% missed this week's cut-off date for submitting firm proposals.
Newly merged housing associations are coming under increasing pressure from their regulator to make efficiency savings over and above those identified in their business plans.
Nearly a quarter of the initial bids received for social housing grant over the next two years are from private developers and other non-registered social landlords.
Prince Charles and the Queen should submit their annual accounts to the National Audit Office for proper scrutiny, senior backbench MPs have said this week.
The new head of the NHF will be seeing his Edinburgh home only at weekends from now on. But that's a small price to pay for a man with a mission, he tells Neil Merrick
Government plans to slash the number of people claiming incapacity benefit have suffered a blow after a detailed statistical exercise revealed there were 135,000 more recipients than estimated.
