The next Labour government would save more than £500m from council funding by expanding shared service schemes across local authorities, senior figures have announced.
The Audit Commission’s controller of audit has raised concerns about transparency at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority and the London Borough of Lambeth after they failed to publish their 2013/14...
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has said that Birmingham City Council must improve its performance within one year or face Whitehall intervention after an independent review found it was not...
Councils had to spend more than £22m covering the costs of schools converting to academy status in the last two years, even though they are moving free from local authority control and are funded...
Spending cuts on a ‘colossal scale’ are being made in a bid to get the public finances into balance by 2018/19, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
Scotland's auditor general Caroline Gardner has been appointed one of three new non-executive directors of Public Sector Audit Appointments, the body that will oversee local audit contracts from next...
District councils are proving more financially resilient amid government funding cuts than their larger counterparts, a report by Grant Thornton has found.
Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement did not provide any explanation of how public services will be able to deliver cuts still to be made, CIPFA has said.
The government will create a sovereign wealth fund for the North of England so that shale gas revenues in the region can be used to invest in its own economic growth, George Osborne has announced.
The government has pledged that reforms to the system of business rates initiated by George Osborne in the Autumn Statement will not impact on the finances of local authorities.
Over half of all home care workers are on zero-hour contracts, and as many as 220,000 could be paid less than the National Minimum Wage, a study has found.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is to stop councils from seeking section 106 planning obligation payments for small developments of 10 homes or less.
Councils in Hertfordshire are drawing up plans to create a single integrated ‘civil service’ across all the county’s local government bodies to make savings, Public Finance has been told.
Local government minister Kris Hopkins has today awarded grants to 73 public service integration schemes that are expected to lead to more than £900m in efficiencies across the public sector.
Auditors say the Department for Education is not able to hold local authorities to account for their spending on children in care because central government does not have indicators to measure the...
Scotland’s Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) remain inconsistent in their leadership, collaboration and scrutiny, unclear in their ambitions and uneven in their supervision, according to Audit...
Councils should be able to borrow from the Public Works Loan Board to fund revenue spending on projects to integrate local services, an independent expert panel has recommended.
Councils have borne the brunt of the coalition’s public spending cuts, and lost nearly half their core funding in five years. Torn between raising council tax and losing their ‘freeze...
Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis today called on councils to prioritise development of brownfield land so that more homes can be built while protecting the countryside.
Commissioning for children’s services should be transformed to ensure services are joined up and meet long-term needs, an expert report has recommended.
