Local authorities are lagging behind the rest of the public sector in their willingness to embrace change and develop new ways of working, the director general of the CBI said this week.
Nurses who withhold a comforting hand; schools that stop children playing outside; community hospitals that ban home-made cakes at a party. The risk-averse culture has gone far too far, argues Julia...
The next president of CIPFA is a chief executive who balances enthusiasm for her adopted town with a determination to enjoy life to the full. Mike Thatcher reports
Everyone from the Lonely Planet tourist guides to think-tank boffins agree that Britain's city centres now beat anything on offer in Europe. What is responsible for this transformation, asks Will...
Wendy Thomson, the prime minister's principal adviser on public service reform, is to return to her native Canada to take up a professorship at McGill University in Montreal
The chair of the Charity Commission turned down Rada for a career in social policy. But the theatre's loss has been the voluntary sector's gain, writes Vivienne Russell
The government is in a flap about 'respect', or the lack of it as personified by gangs of feral youths wearing 'hoodies'. Is this a real problem or just society having one of its moral panics and,...
The government has pledged to help councils manage extra costs incurred by a decision to reverse reforms to the local government pension scheme, Public Finance has learned.
Scottish Finance Minister Tom McCabe has demanded immediate assurances from Inverclyde Council that it will improve its performance following a damning report this week by the Accounts Commission.
Construction costs on the government's £25bn schools infrastructure programme could easily be cut to release more than £200m for frontline services, James Stewart has told Public Finance.
A Scottish council is set to become the subject of one of the most critical reports of a local authority's performance ever produced by the public spending watchdog, the Accounts Commission.
David Miliband has defended the government's widespread use of targets in its drive to improve local services but has pledged to scrap those that are hindering rather than helping progress.
The general election brought home to the government the country's desire for a return to local democracy. The LGA calls for this to be made a reality and its chair, Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart,...
One day soon, the British public are going to wake up and find that their prime minister has changed. But will they be able to tell the difference between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown? Tony Travers...
