Benefit offices, jobcentres and other agencies of the Department for Work and Pensions could effectively shut down for a full week over Easter unless there is a breakthrough in the dispute over civil...
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...
A grassroots campaign to get rid of Doncaster's directly elected mayor, fuelled by popular anger at large pay increases for the authority's top brass, has won the backing of more than 10,000...
A culture change rather than extra resources is needed if police forces are to transform communities into places where people feel safe from crime, the home secretary told a conference this week.
The stage is set for a showdown between ministers and town hall leaders after authorities defied government orders not to set council tax increases above 5% and issued warnings that budgets could not...
When the NHS was established in 1948, Nye Bevan believed its effect on the nation's health would be so profound that future governments would not have to increase its budget greatly.
The prudential framework for local authority borrowing is about to have a major impact on Glasgow's regeneration, according to the city council's chief executive, George Black.
Pensioners are being urged to claim the council tax reductions they are entitled to as part of a government campaign to stem mounting opposition from older people.
The results of a three-month consultation on the best ways to prevent illness will be used to inform a public health white paper and affect NHS spending priorities between 2005 and 2008.
The government faces a tight deadline to extend trials of new voting methods this summer, after peers blocked proposals to increase the number of all-postal elections in June.
Government attempts to improve the health of the nation have been thwarted by the failure to set clear targets or to establish the cost-effectiveness of policies focusing on prevention, according to...
Local and regional government leaders are urging Chancellor Gordon Brown to stop opposing a substantial increase in the European Commission's budget, so that the UK's four poorest regions can...
Local government needs to take on board lessons from the retail sector if it is to re-engage with the population it serves, according to the prime minister's senior adviser on public service reform.
The government should test out directly elected mayors in at least two big cities, where they would be most suitable, the New Local Government Network claimed this week.
Nick Raynsford has confirmed that the government will not exercise reserve powers to limit how much local authorities can borrow when the Prudential Code comes into force on April 1.
Too many new childcare places are being created with no thought given to how they can be sustained once public funds are exhausted, a senior MP said this week.
Battle lines are being drawn across the public services after the interim conclusions of the Treasury's wide-ranging efficiency review, calling for swingeing civil service job cuts and annual savings...
Radical reform of the council tax is on the way but it will be at least 12 months before a replacement system is drawn up and the details finalised, Public Finance has been told.
