The government should introduce a new system of citizen registration to allow for better local planning of public services in areas with high levels of immigration, a think-tank has said today.
Council shared service initiatives saved more than £350m in the last year as more town halls agreed to work together in areas such as adult social care, school support and back-office functions,...
A committee of MPs has called on ministers to bring forward plans to create a single public services watchdog for England as part of reforms to the role of the Parliamentary and Health Service...
Increased fiscal devolution to cities is a ‘necessity’ to boost the growth rate of the UK, a leading economist examining plans to increase the powers of municipalities has told Public...
A Whitehall programme to help central and local government share offices and other property is to be extended to 15 new authorities across the country.
Trade union Unison has announced that it is to ballot 600,000 council workers over strike action after members rejected a pay offer by the local government employers.
Councils will need to sign a pledge setting out how many potholes they will fix over the next year to qualify for money from a new Whitehall road-repair fund, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin...
Total public sector borrowing in 2013/14 was £107.7bn, nearly £7.5bn lower than the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics’ first estimate of the deficit for the whole of the...
The chair of the Public Works Loan Board has stepped down after it was revealed that he had not declared a bankruptcy when he was being appointed to the role.
Chancellor George Osborne today said the ‘tough decisions’ taken to cut government spending since 2010 have allowed the Treasury to prioritise infrastructure investments to boost growth.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has threatened to issue legal directions to compel five London councils to limit the frequency of town hall newspapers, accusing some authorities of acting...
Nearly nine out of ten people believe that government restrictions on councils opening new schools should be lifted, according to a poll carried out for the Local Government Association
The Metropolitan Police today said it had seen no ‘credible evidence of criminality’ at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and would not be investigating further
Scotland’s island councils look certain to win increased autonomy from Holyrood regardless of the outcome of the independence referendum, after Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael threw the weight...
More than 120 communities are to be given greater control over local public services as part of the expansion of the government’s neighbourhood Community Budgets scheme.
Early intervention to tackle social problems is more vital than ever in a climate of local authority cutbacks. Payment-by-results Social Investment Bonds are potentially an important way to kick-...
More people believe that councils in England should be given extra powers than are satisfied with their town halls’ current responsibilities, a poll for the IPPR North think-tank has found.
The government has launched a review of the business rates system that will look at possible reforms to the administration of the property tax, which is collected by councils
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has proposed the creation of extra council tax bands to implement the Liberal Democrats’ proposed mansion tax.
Ed Miliband has today called on every council and local enterprise partnership in England to begin planning for a radical devolution of economic power from the next Labour government, aimed at...
The government has today opened the bidding process to allocate an extra £300m of Housing Revenue Account borrowing to local authorities, intended to fund the construction of 10,000 affordable homes
The Treasury must do more to boost confidence in the ability of the public sector to manage and report the use of off-payroll arrangements to pay staff, a House of Lords committee has said
MPs have today launched an inquiry into the effectiveness of the government’s planning reforms amid concerns that some councils are engaging in poor practice to meet Whitehall targets.
