More than £12bn of public funds is spent every year on support for small business but to what effect? A Conservative Party task force found the programmes to be ineffective, bureaucratic and...
Last week's draft Climate Change Bill shows the UK government is serious about tackling global warming. But it needs to go even further, argues Stuart Williams
Benefits need to be made available for all disabled children and taken up by more families if the government is to eradicate child poverty by 2020, a leading think-tank has warned.
Families in temporary accommodation are being offered the opportunity of a permanent home after a London council announced plans to buy back 200 properties sold under the right-to-buy scheme.
Housing Corporation chief executive Jon Rouse is leaving his post this summer to lead Croydon council. His appointment as the London borough's chief executive should be confirmed next week.
Plans to build thousands of homes in Southeast England will land the government and local authorities with an extra bill running into billions of pounds, the Environment Agency warned this week.
Councils have warned that central government aspirations for a 100% increase in town hall cashable efficiency savings are unachievable without cuts in local services.
Ministers have quickly rejected key recommendations from Sir Michael Lyons' review of local government, including a revaluation of property prices and an end to capping.
Hundreds of millions of pounds held in dormant bank accounts will soon be used to fund local youth services under plans revealed by the Treasury this week.
Gordon Brown has been accused of 'sneaking out' the news that the Comprehensive Spending Review will be delayed until the autumn and of trying to 'close down' a public debate over its conclusions.
All children should be able to attend good schools, or at least have an equal opportunity of doing so. But that's not the case at present. The controversial new code of admissions aims to even the...
It no longer seems so much 'if' as 'when'. Bizarre, amazing, doomed call it what you will, but the Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness look set to become first and deputy first ministers of...
The Parliamentary and health service Ombudsman has found the Department of Health guilty of 'maladministration' in its bungled attempts to correct an earlier error.
Ministers and councillors should have more direct control over quangos and arm's-length bodies, Tom McCabe, Scotland's finance minister, has suggested.
Two heads are better than one when it comes to leading a major culture change in children's services. Sally Gainsbury meets the joint presidents of the Association of Directors of Children's Services...
Just as the Barker review points the way to more planning incentives, along comes the European Union with yet another fly in the ointment. Now even section 106 projects are threatened by procurement...
Local authorities and NHS trusts might be forced to reduce their carbon count through a mandatory emissions trading scheme, under legislation published this week.
Sir Michael Lyons this week denied that his proposed overhaul of town hall funding would initiate massive hikes in council taxes on expensive homes, and revealed that a long-term plan would accompany...
Councils and nursery providers have warned that the proposed national curriculum for babies, toddlers and pre-school children needs to be backed with adequate funding if it is to be a success.
Pre-school children are not meeting government-set learning goals because of variable early years teaching standards, education inspectors said this week.
Hospitals could fail the Healthcare Commission's annual health check if they do not treat elderly patients with dignity and give them adequate help with eating.
