Gordon Brown's new ministerial team has ditched plans to create 'mega-contractors' that would enjoy lucrative regional monopolies in the forthcoming privatisation of jobseeker programmes.
Communities in the Thames Valley were bracing themselves for more flooding as operations continued to restore tap water supplies to 350,000 people in western England after thousands of hectares were...
When Gordon Brown first got his feet under the table at the Treasury way back in 1997 he promised to hit the ground running. Ten years on and his protégé Ed Balls has wasted no time in...
Whitehall-set public service targets are to be slashed and councils given greater scope to boost regional economies, the Treasury said this week indications that the new government may be putting...
The Cabinet Office has ordered an urgent review of the UK's civil contingencies planning following a report on the Buncefield oil depot blast, which revealed widespread public confusion about...
Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week outlined plans to force benefit claimants into work axing some payments and asking people to take jobs outside their locality.
It's time to step up the fight against global warming. Local government has been leading the way but now it must help an increasingly concerned public to do its bit. The best way is through...
A new level of ambition is needed if communities are to guarantee their viability in the low-carbon decades ahead. That's why we must find the next Chamberlains, Livingstones and Schwarzeneggers
Councils face mounting costs in meeting their 'green' obligations. There's much they can do to cut these but they still need more resources, argues Chris Wilson
Now that politicians have promoted sustainability from token policy pledge to manifesto must-have, Public Finance 's latest round table posed the question of how local authorities can save the...
The new prime minister's plan to give Parliament greater powers sounds good on paper. But, just like his predecessors, he has made major machinery-of-government changes without involving either House
The delivery of flagship skills programmes remains on track despite the decision to split the former Department for Education and Skills in two, a senior education official claimed this week.
Councils and other public service leaders rushed to unpick the substance of the government's forthcoming legislative plans as the prime minister broke with tradition and set out much of his programme.
Public sector pension funds are using their hefty financial clout to lobby for changes to the government's draft Climate Change Bill, claiming that ministers are not doing enough to cut CO2 emissions.
Elderly people in some areas of England are 160 times more likely to receive NHS continuing care than others, startling figures published on July 13 reveal.
Councils and their partners need to make clear who disgruntled citizens should complain to about jointly delivered services, the local government ombudsman said this week.
New Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has vowed to make 'localism and devolution' the watchwords of her tenure, she said in her first major speech since her appointment.
Public bodies are undermining Prime Minister Gordon Brown's efficiency drive by paying up to two-thirds above the market rate for equipment and services, a study of the sector's procurement habits...
