There will be no 'fourth option' for funding improvements to housing stock and councils must use private money to achieve the decent homes standard, David Miliband was due to warn delegates in...
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has been criticised by the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance for calling for a reduction in the size of the province's public sector.
Local authorities have forced the Revenue & Customs department into a U-turn over plans to standardise the tax rates paid by councils when settling backdated equal pay claims.
New Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell has chosen a local government expert to lead the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and promoted a specialist to manage the Northern Ireland Office.
As the Conservatives gear up for their Blackpool conference next week, they face their most important leadership contest in more than 40 years. Philip Johnston analyses the policies behind the beauty...
The NHS needs finance skills more than ever if it is to transform itself into a modern, forward-planning organisation while struggling with major structural upheavals, growing deficits and the need...
Senior local government figures queued up to criticise the government this week after David Miliband announced that the council tax revaluation exercise was being shelved and the Lyons funding...
The National Union of Teachers has welcomed the Department for Education and Skills' hardline approach to school absenteeism, which will target the parents of 8,000 'serial truants'.
The Liberal Democrat leadership this week called on members to support a bold range of new policy proposals designed to give the party a real chance of electoral success by the end of the decade.
Patient and Public Involvement forums might be reformed along very similar lines to the recently abolished Community Health Councils, health minister Rosie Winterton said this week.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is considering proposals to expand the powers of local authority overview and scrutiny committees, so they would be able to hold government departments and...
The architect of Whitehall's £40bn savings plan believes ministers will seek to achieve public sector efficiencies beyond the target date of 2008 because of the political imperative to restrain...
The inquiry into local government funding has been widened, but the same questions remain, namely those of devolution, fairness, and how to tackle the public's understanding of the way councils work
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are meant to be as one on the need for radical public sector reform. But as Blair embarks on one of his last Party conferences as PM, his quest for a legacy is bringing...
They call him the 'smiling assassin' and he's certainly ruthless about improving education. DfES permanent secretary Sir David Normington talks to Maria McHale about his role and rumours of an...
City academies must not be allowed to opt out of co-operation with other schools in their area, head teachers warned this week as the prime minister announced an acceleration in the programme.
The London bombings are putting long-established 'community cohesion' policies to the test and threatening to hijack them in the name of a quick fix for terrorism.
The legislative process needs to be pared down and made subject to 'sunset clauses' if more trust is to be built up between central and local government, argue George Jones and John Stewart
Mammoth PFI commitments appear to have had their day in the NHS, now that the government is prizing competition above all else. Smaller, self-financed projects are emerging as the way forward
