The first ever Whole of Government Accounts are a ‘big step forward’ for public sector financial management despite being qualified by the National Audit Office last month, according to the Treasury’...
The Scottish Government plans to offload at least a quarter of its property over the next four years, and has hinted strongly that it wants councils and health authorities to follow suit.
Councils are detecting much more fraud but there’s still plenty of places to hide, warns the Audit Commission’s chair. Criminals are finding new ways of plundering public money
Plans for councils to keep a share of business rates and to borrow against future income to support infrastructure projects have been formally announced today, ahead of the Local Government Finance...
Unions and the government are likely to agree changes to local government pensions today, but deals on other public sector pension schemes will be ‘pretty difficult’ to achieve before Whitehall’s...
Unions have accused the government of resorting to ‘bullying tactics’ in the dispute over public sector pension reforms after two more government departments published planned staff contribution...
Prime Minister David Cameron announced today that the government will spend almost £450m in a bid to turn around the lives of 120,000 problem families in England.
Local authorities generally coped well with the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards last year but some filed late accounts as a result, the Audit Commission said today.
Local authorities have been warned that they will need to guarantee each others’ debts if a new local authority bond agency is to get the top credit rating needed to make the plans viable.
There’s trouble at the top in Whitehall, with senior civil servants taking to the streets and relations with ministers becoming increasingly dysfunctional. Colin Talbot tests the temperature in the...
Latest figures on fly-tipping show the ‘real impact’ councils are having in tackling illegally deposited waste, according to the Local Government Association.
Finance Secretary John Swinney yesterday urged Scotland’s 32 councils to use their capital borrowing powers to boost Scotland’s economic recovery, as he announced their funding allocations for the...
The civil service has been protected from the brunt of the government’s spending cuts and as a result is making little effort to reform, councils are claiming
Councils should take action sooner rather than later to cut their workforce costs without having to make widespread compulsory redundancies, the Audit Commission said today.
Senior public sector staff expect private companies to play a greater role in providing public services, but almost half believe such collaboration will affect quality, a survey has found.
At first sight, the government’s plan to give councils control of business rates and Council Tax Benefit was a fine case of ‘localism’ in action. In practice, it means town halls will take the rap...
Derek Myers is no ordinary chief executive. Having run one London borough for a decade, he has taken on responsibility for a second and is sharing a range of services with a third. He tells PF how...
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has branded today’s public sector strike ‘inappropriate, untimely and irresponsible’ as thousands of schools closed nationwide and hospitals prioritised urgent...
