Councils need to be more vocal in their opposition to the Comprehensive Performance Assessment if local democracy is to survive, the chief executive of Westminster City Council has warned.
After months of delays, the much-heralded Local Government Pay Commission was finally unveiled this week amid claims by trade unions and councils that the 'other side' was expecting too much from...
Pharmacists are keen to develop their services to patients but are not receiving adequate support from primary care trusts, the King's Fund said this week.
CBI focuses on needs of 'Joe Public'
Putting the consumer first was the focus of a new approach to public-private partnerships enshrined in the Confederation of British Industry's much-heralded '...
NHS hospitals in the north of England provide better care for their patients than their counterparts in the south, according to the health service's own watchdog.
The two largest classroom teaching unions went on a one-day strike in London this week over their demand for an increased allowance to cover the cost of living in the capital.
The part-privatisation of Britain's air traffic services became an 'appalling mess' because the government failed adequately to test the financial durability of the project, MPs claimed this week.
NHS trusts that are developing Private Finance Initiative projects should not place 'undue emphasis' on demonstrating savings against a Treasury-funded project, the National Audit Office said this...
Local authorities could raise an extra £65m under new government proposals to end the automatic entitlement to a 50% council tax discount for second homes.
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council is failing to tackle racial strife in the aftermath of last year's riots because of management weaknesses, says the Audit Commission.
England's pensioners missed out on almost £1.9bn last year, largely because the government failed to inform them of the range of benefits available, according to the National Audit Office.
A 'spasm of anti-centralism' since Labour came to power has threatened universal standards and equality of access to public services, according to a Left-wing think tank.
The prime minister has pledged that all primary and secondary schools will have high-speed Internet access by 2006 as part of a £6bn information technology spend over the next three years.
Home Secretary David Blunkett this week played down claims that he is creating a national police force, despite unveiling centrally determined priorities for local forces.
Further education colleges are to receive an extra £1.2bn in funding over the next three years but resources will be dependent on reaching performance targets, Education Secretary Charles Clarke...
The Comprehensive Performance Assessment is the 'model of the future' for inspecting and improving public services, the new chair of the Audit Commission has said.
Private developers cannot be relied upon to build the thousands of affordable homes needed in the Southeast and other parts of England, housing professionals were told this week.
The Department for Education and Skills has attempted to defuse the growing row over top-up fees for university students by publishing a consultation document hinting that a graduate tax may be a...
The NHS is facing a 'worrying' shortage of GPs following an increase in the number of vacancies over the last year, a doctors' leader warned this week.
Government plans to free only the best NHS trusts from Whitehall control and to penalise councils that fail to tackle bed-blocking have been criticised by health service managers.
'They are going up the Swanee if someone doesn't give them money,' Mayor Ken Livingstone is reported to have said last weekend of PFI contractors Amey and WS Atkins, leading players in the public-...