The Scottish Executive is on course to meet the majority of targets set out in its draft budget for 2004/05, Finance and Public Services Minister Andy Kerr announced this week.
Fire authorities are being dilatory in implementing the modernisation agenda due to come into force following last year's firefighters' strike, the Audit Commission says.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has told his party's spring conference that he is not scared to use the word 'redistribution' when describing his tax and spending plans.
Gordon Brown's pledge to prune Whitehall's army of Sir Humphreys and slash billions of pounds from the government's annual spending bill ensured that these issues dominated last week's post-Budget...
The introduction of proportional representation (PR) in Scottish local government has moved a step closer, following a decision by a committee of MSPs to approve the principles of the Local...
British local government is not powerful enough to underpin a switch to a social insurance scheme for national health care, while Conservative Party plans for 'patient passports' to ease the burden...
The Conservative Party will go back to first principles and avoid the lure of quick-fix solutions to the council tax controversy, its new local government finance spokesman has told Public Finance .
Ministers should introduce local health czars and revamp GP surgeries as part of a programme of public health improvement, the King's Fund said this week.
More than £1bn a year needs to be invested in the social housing sector to meet future demand and secure a long-term improvement in the housing market, the Treasury-commissioned review of UK housing...
'Insulting' and 'a slap in the face' are not extraordinary comments in the opening rounds of the local government pay talks. But this year is extraordinary.
Labour activists should make the most of the fact that Labour councils have set the lowest average council tax rises in the forthcoming local elections, the party's leadership has said.
A bitter row has broken out between teaching unions over Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to introduce a new pay scale for 'excellent' teachers.
Conservative local government leaders have hailed the party's decision to appoint a spokesman on town hall finance for the first time, as recognition of the issue's increasing political significance.
Choice will play a central part in the next phase of public service reform, opening up services to greater influence from users, according to one of the prime minister's chief advisers.
Unnecessary impositions and over-zealous regulation by government agencies will be the focus of attempts to eradicate the 'regulatory creep' burdening Britain's public sector, according to the man...
Gordon Brown threw down the gauntlet to the Conservatives this week when he used his Budget statement to promise substantial extra investment in key public services well into the next Parliament.
The maze of regulations governing how local authorities manage their investments will be swept away when a simplified 'prudential' framework comes into effect on April 1.
Local government employers are poised to offer around a 2% pay increase this year, half of the unions' claim, under pressure to stick to Treasury inflation targets and keep council spending down.
Local authorities have 'not woken up to the scale of the challenge' presented by the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act due to come into force in 2005, according to the commissioner...
