Local government leaders are calling for league tables and crude national comparisons to be scrapped when Comprehensive Area Assessments are introduced.
If the third sector is to achieve its potential as a supplier of goods and services, it must change its attitude to procurement in a fundamental way; the public sector must look at its mind-set...
An economic downturn is coming, that much almost everyone is agreed on. But its depth, width and length are still uncertain. As the Budget looms, Priyen Patel looks at the options
The NHS is approaching 60 and as deficits turn into surpluses it's not looking bad for its age. But now everyone is anticipating the health minister's final report, and asking how much his...
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced a plan for tackling violent crime just three days ahead of a National Audit Office report warning that the government lacked a long-term strategic approach to...
The credit crunch scored a first this week, the nationalisation of a bank. But behind the scenes it is also having a serious impact on public sector pension schemes and proposed PFI projects. Paul...
Faced with a legal challenge, most local authorities automatically go to court. They should learn from the private sector, where cheaper and quicker alternative dispute resolution is growing in...
A brief surge in house-building by local authorities in England has failed to increase the number of council homes significantly, government figures reveal.
A Whitehall error has meant two London councils will lose special funding they were promised in the provisional local government finance settlement last year.
The new Homes and Communities Agency could be up and running by the end of the year, its chief executive designate said this week. Sir Bob Kerslake said he would like to bring forward the formal...
The 1997 Single Status Agreement was supposed to end unequal pay in local government. But a decade on, women are still underpaid, thousands of cases are clogged up in tribunals and workers are on the...
Scotland's largest local authority is to shed more than 400 posts following its decision to freeze council tax in line with the policy of the Scottish government.
Next month's decision on seven planned NHS independent sector treatment centres will show whether the government is committed to reforming the service, the CBI said this week.
Local authorities will ignore centrally imposed house-building targets unless they have financial incentives to approve developers' plans, according to a senior government adviser.
