The government's data-sharing revolution has begun and armchair auditors have an array of website weapons to choose from. This is not a threat to the public sector but an opportunity for greater...
Few fire and rescue services could deploy sophisticated equipment for responding to natural disasters or terrorist incidents at all times, the Audit Commission has found.
The government will review local government finance 'this time next year', Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles told an influential group of MPs this week.
The government has been managing expectations of next month’s Comprehensive Spending Review since June’s emergency Budget, and voters now know to expect incredibly harsh settlements for the services...
The education watchdog Ofsted today exposed serious flaws in provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, calling for 'a shift in direction'
The Unite union has told Prime Minister David Cameron that councils have already axed vital services such as meals on wheels and social care provision for elderly people as they prepare for spending...
The Welsh Local Government Association has warned that the public sector cuts to be announced next month put Wales at greater risk of returning to recession.
The local government secretary’s decision to transfer the Audit Commission’s value-for-money work to the National Audit Office was ‘taken in haste’ and not thought through, local government select...
Local government minister Bob Neill has claimed there is not ‘a shred of evidence’ that this week’s collapse of social housing maintenance firm Connaught was linked to the scale and pace of...
Charity leaders have questioned whether the government’s Big Society plan can work in practice, as spending cuts start to hit the organisations needed to make it happen.
The government today confirmed it has received 56 bids from councils and businesses across England to form Local Enterprise Partnerships. But on the same day a Commons select committee inquiry raised...
Stretched councils are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for staff to gain new qualifications in work time, Public Finance has learned. This is prompting fears that workforces will lack '...
The government has announced plans to put more private sector representatives on the board of the Audit Commission as the regulator prepares to transfer out of public ownership
The Audit Commission has appointed its local government chief Gareth Davies to oversee a bid to transform the watchdog into an employee-owned co-operative or mutual
Sir Bob Kerslake, the chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, has been appointed permanent secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government
Councils in London are lobbying for extra funding amid fears that government cuts will make it increasingly difficult to provide school places for the capital’s booming infant population
The government must put in place a series of 'checks, balances and incentives' to ensure its school reforms do not only benefit those from privileged backgrounds, leading social mobility charity the...
