Hospitals across England are responding to the introduction of NHS performance ratings by 'raising their game', although there is still room for improvement, Health Secretary Alan Milburn said this...
MPs have slated the government for reneging on its promise to liberate councils from Whitehall control and demanded a 'major reappraisal' of the draft bill intended to deliver new freedoms.
The Department of Transport failed to consider the risk of a drop in air traffic when it sold part of the National Air Traffic Services to the private sector, it has emerged.
As industrial action by council workers, train drivers and firefighters escalates are we witnessing a new era of union militancy that echoes the 1979 'winter of discontent'?
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is to spend the summer battling the rest of Whitehall for a reduction in use of ringfenced grants to councils, now totalling £10bn.
Home Secretary David Blunkett has admitted that the Home Office lacks the funds to implement fully all the measures contained in this week's ambitious criminal justice white paper.
District Audit and Inspection Service functions are to be integrated for the first time under a shake-up of internal structures unveiled by the Audit Commission this week.
Whitehall departments that benefited from Gordon Brown's largesse in Monday's long-awaited Spending Review will be expected to meet 'demanding' national targets.
The right to buy should be phased out as council and housing association tenants are encouraged to gain a financial stake in their home, a report suggested this week.
For all its words about devolution of control, the government effectively tightened its grip on education in the Spending Review, outlining a new blueprint for secondary schools that will explicitly...
The ground-breaking public-private partnership between Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire County Council was hanging in the balance this week after fears over the long-term future of one of the...
Local authorities are in line for an average increase of 4.2% in central grant over the next three years, prompting accusations that local services are being pushed to the back of the spending queue.
Local government unions were this week set to unveil plans for a 'widespread escalation of industrial action' after being given the cold shoulder by employers in the wake of the first national strike...
Nick Raynsford has revealed a talent for nifty conjuring tricks in his proposals for reforming the notoriously complex Standard Spending Assessment, the method by which authorities receive their...
The Department of Health has for the first time agreed to improve the quality of care offered by the NHS in return for the billions of pounds being poured in by the Treasury over the next five years...
The Spending Review has confirmed what many expected: large increases in resources for many public services. The Budget had already told us how far the overall spending envelope would grow, and laid...
Walsall Council averted the threat of government intervention this week after agreeing to remove its entire top management team and appoint an interim chief executive.
Westminster City Council this week granted the biggest-ever outsourcing contract in local government history but failed to ease staff fears that they could be relocated outside London as part of...
County councils could lose up to £800m as a result of proposed reforms to the distribution of the Standard Spending Assessment unveiled by the government on July 5.
The leader of Redbridge council in London has pledged to stop a new racecourse being built in the area. Plans for the multi-million pound track at Fairlop Waters are well advanced, but newly elected...
Dan Corry, the former special adviser to local government secretary Stephen Byers, is to take over as executive director of the New Local Government Network.
Just one in four local authorities believes that it will be granted greater financial freedoms as a result of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment framework, research has revealed.
