A tool for local economic regeneration or an antisocial licence to print money? As competition hots up in the bidding war for the UK's first 'super-casino', Peter Hetherington talks to the councils...
The next Conservative government will not run public services 'from a desk in Whitehall' and will give frontline organisations the freedom to make decisions in response to local circumstances, Oliver...
Unions this week suspended plans for strikes in the lead-up to the local elections, following what they called a 'very positive move forward' in the dispute over the local government pension scheme.
Senior officials from four Whitehall departments have been appointed to a new public-private steering group that will advise ministers on information security policies such as biometric passports and...
Patient Choice sounds great in theory, particularly when the likes of Julian Le Grand explain it. But we have to take care to avoid rushing into an untried and uncertain solution to the problems of...
Got a problem that needs sorting? You could do worse than ask the senior Cabinet Office minister in charge of most things. Mark Conrad talks to the amiable all-rounder
Civil service trade unions this week accused the Department for Work and Pensions of withdrawing a commitment to avoid compulsory redundancies in implementing the government's £40bn efficiency...
Pensions experts have attacked leaked government proposals for life insurance firms to manage billions of pounds of retirement assets as part of a potential compromise over the national savings...
Senior civil servants this week threatened to launch a series of equal pay tribunals following what they described as a 'depressing' 2006 settlement that does not address the two-tier pay regime...
In the dispute over the Local Government Pension Scheme the government has indicated that it may give trade unions concessions on the issue of protection.
Local government workers are not striking over unreasonable pension demands. They simply want equal treatment with other public sector employees and a fair replacement for the '85-year' rule
The Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 must prioritise anti-child poverty investment if ministers are to hit their targets on the issue, a new report claims.
A leading local authority has been told it cannot advertise employment training courses for deprived ethnic minority groups at Jobcentre Plus offices following a dispute over the Race Relations Act.
The local government pensions dispute remains in deadlock, despite emergency talks convened by the government this week following a one-day strike that disrupted council services across the UK.
Government should increase spending on social care for older people by more than 50%, the long-awaited Wanless review of the future of care funding has recommended.
Critics of choice in public services claim that ordinary people don't want it. Quite the opposite, argues Julian Le Grand it's the least well-off who stand to gain the most
With education set to take the lion's share of public spending increases, what are the prospects for other departments? The chancellor will have little room to manoeuvre in the Comprehensive...
Nurses and doctors from developing countries can no longer be poached by the NHS, but other richer nations do not have the same restrictions. Ministers Rosie Winterton and Gareth Thomas call for a...
Some of the nation's finest minds are trying to track down the culprits for the soaring NHS deficits. Andy McKeon knows where the bodies are buried and says all will be revealed once the reforms...
Yes, the government missed its 2004/05 target for reducing the number of children in poverty but it has made some heartening progress towards the overall goal. Ian Kearns explains what it needs to...
The permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions this week rejected claims that his organisation is 'in crisis' following a series of damaging reports but acknowledged that the DWP...
Gordon Brown gave an unambiguous signal that the days of plenty are over for the public sector as he used his Budget statement to announce that four Whitehall departments would have their expenditure...
Chancellor Gordon Brown this week injected further momentum into the government's devolution agenda but the tone emerging from Number 11 points towards a regionalist approach at the expense of...
