In what has been described as a 'near revolutionary' step, the government has reopened the debate on the unfunded police and fire pension schemes and raised the possibility of meeting pension costs...
Seven of the leading professional associations in local government have agreed a set of principles in response to Prime Minister Tony Blair's 'reform or bust' speech this week.
The Strategic Rail Authority must set 'more demanding' targets for improvements when its strategic plan for the railways is published in the autumn, the Commons Public Accounts Committee has demanded...
The government is to push ahead with plans for school reform despite stalling its much-trailed education white paper because of concerns about privatisation and the contentious issue of single-faith...
The campaign for elected mayors took one leap forward then a large step back this week after residents in Watford voted yes to a US-style boss, only to find that slow work by Parliament will put back...
Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers has pledged to forge a new relationship between central and local government by slashing bureaucracy and giving authorities greater financial freedom.
Risk management can have a major impact on councils' progress in achieving strategic objectives and is not a 'one-off exercise', the Audit Commission has warned.
Birmingham City Council is setting a precedent in housing transfers by asking lenders to underwrite loans worth £1bn before it consults tenants over the move.
Peter Mandelson has outlined a vision of English devolution that puts 'people before structures' and gives communities the tools to bring about their own renaissance.
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city riven by divisions. On one side are hip Labour councillors ready to plough as much as £488,000 into a youth culture event, the Love Parade.
The make-or-break date for the government's policy on directly elected mayors looks increasingly like October 18 after Brighton and Hove Council became the latest authority to declare it will hold a...
Fraud Squad officers have been called in to investigate financial irregularities in the Scottish Borders Council (SBC), as the authority's internal inquiry into a near-£4m overspend nears its...
Sir Andrew Foster will take over as head of the Best Value Inspectorate after Wendy Thomson was poached by 10 Downing Street to head up a new team advising Tony Blair on public service reform.
Twenty-seven councils have been given the green light to sell off swathes of their housing stock as the government renewed its commitment last week to the large-scale transfer of council housing to...
London Mayor Ken Livingstone has warned that the capital's social and public infrastructure is falling apart because of a lack of investment by central government.
The controversy over the future of public services continued to rage this week with warnings that Tony Blair's plans for widespread private sector involvement to drive up standards could become '...
Councils at the vanguard of on-line service delivery have blamed the private sector's unwillingness to form close partnerships and their own uncertainties over procurement for the hesitant...
Pensioners, fishermen and schoolchildren in the Berkshire borough of Bracknell Forest will soon be able to access council services through a single smart card.
Nursing-home owners in Devon are having a crisis meeting with the new leaders of the county council in a last-ditch attempt to solve their bitter dispute over fees.
Brighton's refuse collectors could take over the multi-million pound contract to clean the city's streets following the removal of private sector waste firm Sita.
Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers has signalled the roll-out of local Public Service Agreements to all top-tier authorities by announcing £300m of unsupported credit approvals (UCAs) for...
