The Fire Brigades Union has two weeks to persuade members to accept a 16% pay deal after a special conference voted overwhelmingly against it in a bruising episode for its ruling executive council...
The Liberal Democrats hope to benefit from Labour's unpopularity over the Iraq crisis and the continuing doldrums of the Tories to make serious gains in May's local elections.
The party's spring...
Taxpayers will be millions of pounds worse off during the next 30 years because ex-council homes are being renovated by new landlords rather than by local authorities, the National Audit Office said...
Local Government Association economic and environmental policy director Neil Kinghan is crossing back into central government to become director general for local and regional government at the...
Four London boroughs are being forced to cut the discounts they offer council tenants who buy their homes through the right to buy scheme, despite telling Whitehall they want to retain existing...
The Department for Education and Skills has accused the London Borough of Croydon of needlessly withholding money from schools.
In a funding row that shows no signs of abating, Croydon and...
Suspicions among council highways and transport officers that their budgets are being plundered by education and social services colleagues have been reinforced by the Commission for Integrated...
Councils are to press local government minister Nick Raynsford for extra cash to meet the costs of ending the two-tier workforce in outsourced contracts.
The Local Government Association executive...
The government is to delegate responsibility for checking potential workers' identities to 'registered bodies' such as local authorities in an attempt to overhaul the beleaguered Criminal Records...
The relentless push for public services improvement has provided a burgeoning market for the Improvement and Development Agency, which plans to expand to meet rising demand from local government....
It was not the news that Health Secretary Alan Milburn already facing an embarrassing backbench revolt over foundation trusts and accusations of widespread waiting list fiddling by hospitals...
Councils hoping to transfer their housing have been warned against creating a single new landlord for the entire stock.
New guidance on large-scale voluntary transfers, published this week by the...
Authorities rated 'excellent' will not have their council tax increases capped, despite rises of up to 45%, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed this week, with ministers apparently...
The next 12 months could make or break the government's public services reform agenda, the new leader of the union movement has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance , Brendan Barber, who...
Central and local government must 'give up a bit of power' to tackle social exclusion in partnership with voluntary and community bodies.
That was the message from Office of the Deputy Prime...
The government has given way to protests over the scrapping of the local authority social housing grant (LASHG) and announced an extra £110m in transitional funding to keep affordable housing...
Almost 1,000 teaching assistants made legal history this week when their union lodged the biggest equal pay claim to be made in Europe.
Unison has lodged the claim with an employment tribunal in...
The trust that built the first major Private Finance Initiative hospital lacks leadership and has failed to meet the needs of the local community, according to reports this week.
A revised GP contract will put patients at the heart of NHS primary care services by ushering in a radical reform of the way practices are funded.
The proposed contract, published late last week,...
The row over the education 'passporting' fiasco escalated this week, when the Local Government Association accused Charles Clarke of effectively ringfencing cash from council tax rises.
A letter...
The Liberal Democrats outlined their alternative 'cash-back' Budget this week, pledging free care for the elderly and the abolition of tuition and top-up fees for students, but no increases in public...
Bradford has become the first local authority to have its early loan redemption fees paid to help fund a housing transfer.
The city council's handover of almost 25,000 homes to Bradford Community...
Unison Scotland has called for the effective abolition of the Private Finance Initiative in a manifesto launched ahead of May's elections for the country's Parliament.
It said: 'The time has come...
A former local authority chief executive this week started work as the UK's newest crimebuster. Powers came into force on February 25 which allow Jane Earl to go after the assets of criminals as...
Capita, the business services group, said it expected to double its revenue from transport projects in 2003, following the apparent success of the London congestion charging scheme.
Despite a...
