The National Audit Office has today welcomed confirmation from government that it will be able to undertake ‘value for money’ examinations of councils once the Audit Commission is abolished.
Reforms to local government finance mean councils will be increasingly dependent on economic growth to fund services, which could put further pressure on areas such as adult social care, the Centre...
It’s a year since elected majors were rejected by many of England’s big cities. So would local government have been in a more powerful position if the result had been different?
Councils could start to ‘fail’ their communities if the government imposes further cuts in the June Spending Review, the Local Government Association warned today.
Women who are senior managers in the UK public sector are likely to be disproportionately affected by the government’s spending cuts, Ernst & Young has said.
Abolition of the Audit Commission will save £1.2bn over ten years, the government said today as plans to scrap the watchdog were confirmed in the Queen’s Speech.
Councils' adult care budgets have been slashed by £2.7bn – a fifth of their funding – over the past three years, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said today.
The government should simplify planning regulations further to boost private sector housebuilding and construction, according to the Centre for Policy Studies.
Local politics has been shaken by the performance of Ukip in yesterday's elections, but it’s far from being a transformative moment. For most councils, the direction of travel will remain...
The Conservatives have lost more than 300 councillors and control of ten authorities in the results following yesterday’s local elections, as both Labour and the UK Independence Party have gained...
The size of the school workforce in England has steadily increased since the year 2000, although teacher numbers have fallen back from their 2010 peak, the Department for Education has revealed.
The Local Government Ombudsman service is independent and accountable but should be restructured to be led by a chief ombudsman, an independent investigation has concluded.
Local government employees have been hit by a double whammy. Already underpaid and undervalued compared with other sectors, they are now bearing the brunt of public service cuts, argues Heather...
An unpredictable turnout at the May 2 elections is likely to register varied reactions to the coalition’s cuts and benefit changes – but the big story could be how Ukip fares, suggests...
The government has been urged to back down on plans to make Local Enterprise Partnerships compete for a share of the proposed single local growth fund after a warning that such an exercise could be a...
The Local Government Association is set to launch a radical reform plan for councils that will outline new ways of allocating public funding and providing services, chair Sir Merrick Cockell has...
Government ministers want council pension funds to work closer together and ‘do not rule out’ implementing mergers of existing funds, the man leading pension reforms at the Department for Communities...
Local authorities in England have failed to collect almost £2.4bn in council tax since the system began, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The June Spending Review is going to slice Whitehall’s funding cake so thinly that departments will be left fighting over the crumbs. So how are public services meant to cope, asks Tony Travers
Council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been offered a ‘best possible’ 1% pay increase for the current year, local authority employers announced today.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has pledged to stop judicial reviews into government decisions being used as ‘a cheap delaying tactic’ to hold up planning applications and policy changes.
