A parliamentary inquiry into the effectiveness of scrutiny arrangements in councils run by cabinets or mayors is needed after a number of high-profile failings, a senior MP has said.
Councils have been slow to ‘face up to their responsibilities’ on child sexual exploitation, Ofsted has warned today in its first examination of the issue.
The Department for Communities and Local Government must improve efforts to monitor the effect of councils’ funding cuts on the ground, the National Audit Office has said.
The next government needs to better coordinate economic development initiatives if it hopes to close the current North-South divide, a committee of MPs and peers has said.
Members of all three local government unions have voted to accept a two-year pay deal from the Local Government Association, resolving a dispute that had seen workers take strike action.
The economic potential of England’s counties, towns and small cities is just as important as that of big cities, and they should get devolved powers too, says an independent commission.
Councils should be given the right to set business rates and retain any growth in income, while Whitehall should lose its current redistribution powers, the Local Government Association has said.
Early plans to integrate local health and social care services through the Better Care Fund are ‘inadequate’ and fail to match the scale of its ambition, the National Audit Office warned today.
Withdrawal of Council Tax Benefit has resulted in a postcode lottery for households that can’t pay part of the bill. Local authorities are also feeling the effects, with arrears on the increase
What does CIPFA want from the political parties come May 2015? Some honesty about the fiscal position, for starters – and realism about the hard choices to be made
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is to send three commissioners into Tower Hamlets to oversee the work of the authority after an inspection by PricewaterhouseCoopers found it had failed to...
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority is to be led by a directly elected mayor under plans to devolve a host of powers to the city region, Chancellor George Osborne has announced today.
Care minister Norman Lamb has revealed that an expanded version of the government’s flagship Better Care Fund will be the likely mechanism to fully integrate health and care spending across the...
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that nearly all of the 151 Better Care Fund plans in England have been approved ahead of implementation of the reform from next April.
An independent review of the work of Ofsted must be held to address concerns about the independence and credibility of the schools watchdog following a number of ‘media driven’ revisions to its...
Reforms to the ‘broken’ local government funding system are needed to underpin greater localism in decision-making, an independent commission into town hall finance has concluded.
The next government should set a fiscal rule to ensure that total public spending does not exceed tax revenue once the existing deficit is closed, the CBI has said.
Political parties must rule out local government reorganisation to give councils in two-tier areas the confidence to develop and implement voluntary collaboration plans, the New Local Government...
Local authorities face a £4.3bn gap in adult social care funding by the end of the decade due to increasing demand for services and cuts in funding, an analysis has found.
The government plans to claw back redundancy payments from NHS and council managers who return to work in the same sector within a year, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has announced.
The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has appointed its own chief executive after a review found the shared post with the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea could reduce local accountability.
