Plans to abolish the Audit Commission remain on track to save £1.2bn over ten years, the Department for Communities and Local Government has stated today.
Councils are to receive an extra £140m to repair roads damaged by this winter’s severe weather, but local authorities warned the money would not be enough to cover the maintenance bill.
Significant reform of the council tax will require a government with a substantial majority and possibly a two-term timeframe, according to a former Labour local government minister.
Greater collaboration between the three emergency services is being hampered by the lack of clear direction from Whitehall, CIPFA’s police conference was told.
Health and social care services have failed to keep pace with dramatic demographic changes and need to be radically remodelled, the King’s Fund said today
The cost of local government pension administration could be cut in half through greater use of shared services and fund mergers, a government-backed pension firm has said.
The chancellor will use the Budget to reinforce the prime minister’s recovery message to the World Economic Forum at Davos. But rising house prices and consumption threaten to suck in imports, while...
Doubts about the ability of local enterprise partnerships to take on responsibility for administering public funds have prompted the Treasury to ask the Local Partnerships agency to help develop the...
Councils are cutting the support they provide to keep bus services running due to the growing cost of the concessionary fares scheme for elderly people, the Local Government Association has warned.
The coalition’s programme to cut the cost of operational Private Finance Initiative schemes should eventually save more than double its initial £1.5bn target, the chief executive of the Local...
A strike ballot of council workers over the decision by the Local Government Association to delay an annual pay offer until May now looks ‘inevitable’, trade unions warned today.
Public sector pensions are uncertain, unfunded and unsustainable and should be replaced with an individual contributory pension on a defined contribution basis, according to proposals from a Scottish...
Management costs in local authorities, including some finance functions, have increased by 10% in the last decade, with poor monitoring now hindering attempts to cut spending, the Audit Commission...
A future Labour government would support the restructuring of local authorities into unitaries in a drive to ‘declutter’ the public sector, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Chris Leslie has said
Hard fiscal reality means that managing surging demand for public services is the name of the game. This requires whole systems thinking and radical innovation by public bodies
Local authorities have welcomed the announcement by Prime Minister David Cameron that people whose homes have been flooded following recent storms in England will receive a council tax rebate.
Investment in community energy has great potential. But the government's strategy needs to be fine-tuned to ensure the wider public, not just the big six utility companies, reap the benefit
