Local government secretary Eric Pickles has announced changes to the Bellwin scheme to provide extra assistance to councils hit by the floods and storms in recent months
The government’s part-localisation of business rates to councils has been ‘ill-designed’ as the plan to reset the system by 2020 means growth incentives will soon diminish, the Institute for Fiscal...
One year on from the Francis report on the Mid Staffs scandal, the NHS faces a huge challenge. How to reconcile the radical quality improvements it calls for with the severe financial pressures...
If local government restructuring in Wales results in a higher cost base it could prove disastrous. But is hard to see how the process will not end up costing a lot more than it saves
Just over one-third of councils in England have so far agreed to accept a government grant to freeze or cut their council tax from April, latest figures from the Department for Communities and Local...
Local government minister Brandon Lewis has confirmed that the referendum trigger for council tax increases will remain at 2% as part of the final local government finance settlement for 2014/15.
Planned public spending cuts are less than half complete and government pledges made for the next parliament imply that even greater reductions will be needed beyond 2015, the Institute for Fiscal...
Most councils that invested in the failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki have recouped the majority of the money they are due after selling their claims, the Local Government Association has said.
A government review of social housing should give councils greater financial freedoms to boost development, the National Federation of Almos has said today
Three local government trade unions are today holding protests across the country to support their campaign to increase the pay of all council workers to the level of the living wag
A senior council leader has urged the government to streamline its localism initiatives and set out more details about preferred structures for devolved powers
Labour will consider reforms to council tax as part of its commission on town hall finances, shadow local government minister Andy Sawford has revealed
Councils have been urged to back plans to create 39 local investment funds across England that could boost local third sector providers of public services.
Around £95m of public money is to be invested in Oxford to boost local growth, as part of the area’s City Deal, ministers announced today.
Oxford and its surrounding area will receive improvements to...
It is not yet clear what public sector bodies will take on some of the Audit Commission’s responsibilities after its abolition, the local spending watchdog said today as the date of its abolition was...
The Wales Audit Office has today said both Carmarthenshire County Council and Pembrokeshire Council acted unlawfully in allowing senior officers to opt-out of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Increasing demands are being made of the fledgling Education Funding Agency, but there are questions over its capacity to absorb new responsibilities and how its performance will be monitored,...
The Department of Health has accused the Local Government Association of making ‘misleading’ claims about the cost of planned universal deferred payment agreements for adult social care
Councils in Wales are beginning to crack under spending pressures and many need to quickly improve their plans to make efficiency savings amid increasing cuts, the auditor general for Wales has warned
Housing minister Kris Hopkins today set out a plan to support the construction of 165,000 homes over three years under the Homes and Communities Agency’s Affordable Homes Programme
CIPFA has reiterated its opposition to a government proposal to ditch the independent protection against dismissal offered to council Section 151 officers, warning that it could undermine the post’s...
Cities across the UK are falling further behind London and need to be given greater financial powers to grow alongside the capital, a report by the Centre for Cities has found today.
