Health and education are the big winners at the expense of local government in the Welsh Assembly government's draft budget, provoking warnings of council tax hikes next year.
Tony Blair's vision of a radical reform of the welfare state during a third-term of Labour government, revealed this week, has been attacked by an influential think-tank.
Collective choice, co-payments and targeted procurement are likely to be at the heart of Labour's next manifesto, according to a former Cabinet minister close to Blairite thinking.
Local government leaders are to step up their campaign for more government cash in November's revenue support grant settlement, as ministers indicate that they will be looking for average council tax...
Detailed information about individual properties will be published for the 2007 council tax revaluation exercise, but the government has denied that it will be used to compile the revised bandings.
Too few children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities are being educated in mainstream schools despite government action, the school inspectorate said this week.
'One is the loneliest number' goes the song behind Unison's latest TV recruitment campaign the message being that workers are stronger if they stand united than if they act alone.
Northern Ireland's councils have reacted angrily to proposals to cut their number from 26 to just seven, as news emerged of the initial proposals of the Review of Public Administration.
Public sector procurement is facing radical reform as regulators this week moved to break up anti-competitive markets and MPs demanded greater professionalism from civil servants responsible for...
Scotland's new finance minister, Tom McCabe, has dismissed comparisons with England on efficiency in government, saying the targets set are 'appropriate for Scotland' irrespective of the figures for...
The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust pledged this week to achieve 'financial balance' by 2006, despite warnings from auditors that its £20m deficit could escalate to more than £40m.
Local government experts have warned that the introduction of depreciation accounting across councils is unlikely to be swift, as the question of who will foot the bill for any additional costs has...
GP practice-based commissioning must avoid the inequalities associated with earlier experiments in primary care purchasing, the British Medical Association warned this week.
Lower-paid council staff are likely to benefit from changes in proposals to overhaul the Local Government Pension Scheme published this week, at the expense of higher salaried managers.
Sixty-two local authorities in 21 areas will take part in the first Local Area Agreements as Whitehall moved this week to rationalise funding and give councils a taste of new localism.
An east London borough under fire from the government for its high costs is failing to target housing support services at the most vulnerable people, auditors said this week.
