Social landlords are being sold short by the government in their attempts to build sustainable communities, the new leader of England's housing associations warned this week.
New Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell has told local government leaders that he will be urging central government departments to allow local authorities more flexibility in the way they spend their...
Whitehall should be subject to a performance inspection regime similar to the one already in place for local government, the head of the Office of Government Commerce said this week.
City academies must not be allowed to opt out of co-operation with other schools in their area, head teachers warned this week as the prime minister announced an acceleration in the programme.
The London bombings are putting long-established 'community cohesion' policies to the test and threatening to hijack them in the name of a quick fix for terrorism.
The legislative process needs to be pared down and made subject to 'sunset clauses' if more trust is to be built up between central and local government, argue George Jones and John Stewart
The Prudential Code has not led to councils abandoning leasing for loans as predicted, but finance managers say it has freed them to borrow for major projects that will save money in the long term
Schools are improving, but some are still performing well below their best. Ofsted chief David Bell explains how a lean, mean, new inspection regime will sweep up these laggards and help them to...
Current UK procurement rules were drawn up decades before the Internet existed and globalisation took off. Now draft regulations aim to bring these up to date and put a new EU directive into effect
As the TUC and government square up for their annual seaside contest, ministers face a movement riven with divisions and agonising about its future. Judy Hirst predicts tough times ahead for public...
A new dawn of co-operation between central and local government broke this week as Education Secretary Ruth Kelly indicated her willingness to work closely with councils on her planned education...
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has warned all British local authorities that they must quickly develop emergency plans to combat terrorism and deal with the aftermath of a potential...
Former Labour minister Chris Leslie took over as the director of the New Local Government Network this week, promising to give local government a bigger say in the national policy debate.
A strategic health authority at the centre of a row over whether it was rushing the transfer of primary care trust services has denied it jumped the gun.
The majority of district councils are not providing good services across the board, the local government watchdog said this week as it prepared to consult on a new inspection framework.
New Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell has indicated that he could tighten up Whitehall's decision-making to help restore trust in the machinery of government.
A leading race-relations expert has called for high standards of political accountability following the London bombings amid threats of an extremist backlash.
The Department of Health has written an urgent letter to strategic health authorities urging them to stop drawing up commissioning plans for when primary care trusts end their provider role in 2008.
Public sector trades unions held pre-emptive talks this week over the thorny issue of pensions amid growing fears that they could fail to agree reform principles with ministers in advance of more...
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.
As soon as the A-level results are announced, the arguments start, as the qualification is denounced and celebrated in turn. But in the furore, the practical questions about the exam tend to be...
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
