Police could be given extended powers to confiscate alcohol from under-18s in a crackdown on under-age drinking, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced.
Local authorities in Wales are to receive extra funding in return for signing up to achieving minimum standards in the main public services from 2009, Andrew Davies has told Public Finance .
New housing minister Caroline Flint provoked controversy this week by proposing that council and housing association tenants should be required to sign 'commitment contracts', showing they intend to...
Charges are a powerful means of boosting local coffers and even changing people's negative behaviour. But councils not Whitehall are best placed to judge how this should be done
The centre of government has been given a make-over, with new policy advisers and even a permanent secretary at Number 10. But they're no nearer to finding Brown's big idea, says Tony Travers
Not only can the Local Government Information Unit's new executive director juggle family and work but he's handy with the knives, too, writes Joseph McHugh
The government has called for fresh efforts to promote community cohesion and tackle tensions as well as setting out policies to create stronger local communities across the UK.
Local government minister John Healey has announced that councils will again be allowed to use capitalisation to help meet their equal pay obligations.
A single Regional Health and Social Care Board is to be established in Northern Ireland, replacing four existing boards, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has announced.
A council strongly criticised for its performance has been told to speed up improvement by the Accounts Commission, the local government watchdog for Scotland.
The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health has urged the government to speed up the introduction of alternatives to prison for women in the criminal justice system.
The new Department for Children, Schools and Families, headed by secretary of state Ed Balls, is nothing if not ambitious, with a ten-year plan that encompasses all aspects of children's lives. But...
Next year, the Homes and Community Agency will take over a swathe of housing and wider responsibilities. Its chief executive in waiting is raring to go, he tells Neil Merrick
Britain must end its 'addiction' to the idea that choice and diversity in public services inevitably lead to inequalities, new Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has warned.
Scotland's groundbreaking policy of providing free personal and nursing care for elderly people was introduced without sufficient clarity about whether it was a universal entitlement or one dependent...
The government will find itself under pressure to top up public sector spending if it is to meet its policy commitments, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has predicted in its annual 'green budget'.
The government has ordered a review of the eligibility criteria for adult social care services, after a report by the Commission for Social Care Inspection warned that hundreds of thousands of...
As Peter Hain reflects on the end of his ministerial career, he can at least console himself that he oversaw the re-establishment of devolved government in Northern Ireland.
Staff in Northern Ireland councils are 50% more likely to take sick leave than those who work for English local authorities, the Northern Ireland Audit Office has found.
