Pressure is mounting on the European Commission to publish a legal framework establishing the limits to which public services must abide by its rules on free market competition.
Moves to inspect housing associations more rapidly and to give them less advance warning of visits by inspectors could be unfair on the sector, the head of the Audit Commission has warned landlords.
The Scottish Executive has performed well against most of its transport targets but should provide a fuller picture of what is being achieved for a rising, multi-billion pound investment, auditor...
Public sector union Unison has lost its application for a judicial review of the government's decision to increase the earliest retirement age in the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Annual budgets, monitored monthly, are inappropriate in many fast-moving parts of the public sector. They could learn from the 'flexible business management' approach recently adopted by the IDA
Union leaders are warning the government that it faces losing the next general election unless it radically rethinks its policy on public services and halts the march towards marketisation.
The Conservatives have not just got a new logo but a brand new set of policies. Both might be a bit sketchy, but have they got the potential to grow into something more meaningful? Alex Klaushofer...
Alan Johnson has vowed to unveil wide-ranging proposals next month to put a stop to the 'chill indifference' of the state to children in care and banish the deep-seated disadvantage that condemns...
Gordon Brown's plans to devolve more executive power offer a real chance of opening up debate over government spending, starting with the Comprehensive Spending Review. But Colin Talbot somehow...
Sir Michael Lyons has insisted that he has not ruled out relocalising the business rate but admitted that it was not the answer to the problem of local government funding.
The Liberal Democrats successfully shrugged off their image as a high tax-and-spend party after members endorsed radical proposals that shift the focus of taxation from income to wealth and pollution.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has removed the symbolic ceiling on private sector involvement in the NHS but has also conceded an important element of finance policy that experts say will curtail...
Almost 3,500 public sector care home places for elderly and disabled people were lost last year and fewer than one third were replaced by independent provision, a report says.
As the Labour Party gathers for a tumultuous annual conference, Madeleine Bunting and Simon Parker ask what almost ten years of Blairism has really meant for public services. And how can New Labour...
Local and central government are under intense scrutiny, as a plethora of inquiries and reviews get set to report by the end of the year. But with near-civil war gripping the government, how likely...
Housing finance is all at sixes and sevens, what with the new DCLG secretary reassessing policies, a range of reviews and reform pilots on the go and the Comprehensive Spending Review just around...
Certain services and lower-value contracts have always been exempt from the European Union's procurement directive. But fresh guidance now requires even these to be publicly advertised
The new head of the Local Government Information Unit aims to ensure that the think-tank plays a leading role in reform of the sector, he tells Joseph McHugh
Social exclusion minister Hilary Armstrong this week warned local authorities and government departments that they must improve the way they deliver services to Britain's most vulnerable groups or...
The Department of Health has indicated that it wishes all NHS trusts to move towards the more market-orientated financial system currently experienced only by foundation trusts.
