Town hall leaders this week gave a cautious welcome to the government's controversial plan to refer national infrastructure planning decisions to an independent commission.
A good settlement for local government will be a key element of a successful Comprehensive Spending Review, the Cabinet minister overseeing the spending plans said this week.
Local authorities will soon be asked to help Whitehall meet its strict child poverty targets as part of the government's ambitious plan to eradicate the problem by 2020.
Vocational training for school children should be delivered in partnership with local businesses, which are then exempted from their rates. This would boost youngsters' skills and also benefit small...
Gordon Brown has said he is not opposed to electoral reform if it keeps the constituency link. One idea is the alternative vote system, which is supported by ministers Gareth Thomas and James...
Central government is planning a drive to expand the amount of social housing. So where will this leave traditional housing associations? Caroline Shah looks at one option transferring the entire...
The Lyons report suggested a number of ways forward for local government finance. From abolishing capping to localising the business rate, councils must be prepared to seize the initiative and the...
It's the public services, stupid. As Ireland's voters prepare for a general election, the focus is on problems in the country's huge state sector. The rival parties all have their own solutions,...
Councils are gearing up to resume their role as significant house builders after senior Labour figures said they were vital to increasing the supply of new homes.
Innovative approaches to service delivery can help councils bridge the gap between rising public expectations and tighter finances, the local government watchdog said this week.
Most of the UK's public sector finance managers have spent at least a year working in a private sector environment and the two are increasingly trading top staff, research has found.
Chancellor Gordon Brown must extend payment by results systems across the public services if he is to effectively re-engage staff in the reform agenda, a senior minister has claimed.
NHS reform minister Andy Burnham used his first speech since Prime Minister Tony Blair's resignation to strike a more conciliatory tone towards beleaguered NHS staff.
Dartford Borough Council plans to hold a local referendum to ask householders whether they want to switch from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collections, the first authority to do so.
Rationing of NHS services is 'inevitable' and with us now, but in future it must be done in a more systematic, transparent and equitable way, the BMA declared this week.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has reassured local regeneration projects that their funding is safe, despite the European Commission's decision to suspend some payments under the...
Hundreds of town halls have been left struggling with paperwork after the new online registration system for births and deaths was withdrawn following technical failures.
Pipe, a corporate governance adviser at Transport for London, scored 1,713 votes, well ahead of former CIPFA president Diane Colley, who came second with 1,614. Sarah Wood, interim director of...
Local political parties across Scotland were entering into crucial negotiations this week to try to strike coalition deals after election results that left all but two of Scotland's 32 councils with...
By using the Comprehensive Spending Review as a clean sheet assessment, the government has a chance to satisfy the public's demand for better services while keeping spending under control
The government's initial response to Sir Michael Lyons' report might have seemed muted, but the small print tells a different story. Ministers have not only accepted the core thesis, they have taken...
