The future of local government audit has been thrown into disarray after it emerged that the Audit Commission is likely to remain open well beyond its planned abolition in 2012.
Ministers are considering ‘strengthening’ the inspection regime for local authority adoption services in an attempt to reverse a recent decline in family placements.
The gap between rich and poor is narrower in the North than in the rest of the UK but ‘potentially damaging’ pay inequality is on the rise, according to a report published today.
Planned reforms to housing finance put new council homebuilding at risk by leaving too much power in the hands of Whitehall, the Local Government Association has warned.
Plans to impose a 10% Housing Benefit cut on anyone unemployed for more than a year have been dropped from the government’s Welfare Reform Bill, published today.
Council leaders have criticised the Home Office for delaying an announcement on further cuts to Community Safety Partnerships until after most local authority budgets have been set.
Prime Minister David Cameron has defended his government’s controversial Big Society programme today, saying it was his ‘absolute passion’ and calling for ‘social recovery’ in Britain.
The Affordable Rent programme, which gives giving social housing providers the power to charge up to 80% of market rents, was officially launched today.
The Local Government Finance Settlement in Scotland was confirmed yesterday, with councils set to receive more than £11bn next year if they agree to a funding deal
Treasury plans to increase employee contributions to public sector pensions risk ‘breaking’ the system by prompting a mass exodus of members, the chief of one of the UK’s major schemes has warned.
