Local education authorities must act to tackle a 'very worrying' level of violence and abuse against teachers.
That was the message from Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association...
Plans to bring US-style regeneration to Britain's city centres could be undermined by a row over funding.
From April 2004, Business Improvement Districts (Bids), credited with turning around the...
Education Secretary Charles Clarke has launched a £435m programme to provide children's centres in the most deprived parts of England.
The centres will offer childcare, nursery education, parenting...
Widespread concern over the revised local authority grant formula led the government to stump up an additional £28m for schools this week, but ministers denied the cash boost had been influenced by...
Town hall leaders are to mount a campaign against government plans for foundation hospitals, claiming they could dilute their own democratic mandate.
As Public Finance went to press, the...
Manchester has become the first local authority to sign a contract to improve council housing directly through the Private Finance initiative.
The contract was signed on March 25 three and a half...
Scottish Education Minister Cathy Jamieson has used a local government conference to announce an extra £80m to guarantee full implementation of the McCrone agreement on teachers' workloads....
Local government leaders hit out at the government this week after Nick Raynsford demanded an explanation from authorities for the 'excessive' council tax increases that some have levied.
Taxpayers will be millions of pounds worse off during the next 30 years because ex-council homes are being renovated by new landlords rather than by local authorities, the National Audit Office said...
An ambulance service that expanded a temporary staffing pilot into a £60m agency in a rush to meet Whitehall deadlines was left with a £10m deficit, the district auditor reported this week.
A...
The Fire Brigades Union has two weeks to persuade members to accept a 16% pay deal after a special conference voted overwhelmingly against it in a bruising episode for its ruling executive council...
The Liberal Democrats hope to benefit from Labour's unpopularity over the Iraq crisis and the continuing doldrums of the Tories to make serious gains in May's local elections.
The party's spring...
Councils are to press local government minister Nick Raynsford for extra cash to meet the costs of ending the two-tier workforce in outsourced contracts.
The Local Government Association executive...
Local Government Association economic and environmental policy director Neil Kinghan is crossing back into central government to become director general for local and regional government at the...
Four London boroughs are being forced to cut the discounts they offer council tenants who buy their homes through the right to buy scheme, despite telling Whitehall they want to retain existing...
The Department for Education and Skills has accused the London Borough of Croydon of needlessly withholding money from schools.
In a funding row that shows no signs of abating, Croydon and...
Suspicions among council highways and transport officers that their budgets are being plundered by education and social services colleagues have been reinforced by the Commission for Integrated...
The relentless push for public services improvement has provided a burgeoning market for the Improvement and Development Agency, which plans to expand to meet rising demand from local government....
It was not the news that Health Secretary Alan Milburn already facing an embarrassing backbench revolt over foundation trusts and accusations of widespread waiting list fiddling by hospitals...
Councils hoping to transfer their housing have been warned against creating a single new landlord for the entire stock.
New guidance on large-scale voluntary transfers, published this week by the...
Authorities rated 'excellent' will not have their council tax increases capped, despite rises of up to 45%, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed this week, with ministers apparently...
The next 12 months could make or break the government's public services reform agenda, the new leader of the union movement has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance , Brendan Barber, who...
Central and local government must 'give up a bit of power' to tackle social exclusion in partnership with voluntary and community bodies.
That was the message from Office of the Deputy Prime...
The government has given way to protests over the scrapping of the local authority social housing grant (LASHG) and announced an extra £110m in transitional funding to keep affordable housing...
Almost 1,000 teaching assistants made legal history this week when their union lodged the biggest equal pay claim to be made in Europe.
Unison has lodged the claim with an employment tribunal in...
