MPs have slammed the Department of Trade and Industry for failing to boost regeneration initiatives in deprived areas, despite throwing cash at problems in the form of grants.
Commenting in the...
The government and Unison were back on a collision course this week after the prime minister announced that more services would be 'opened up' to the private sector and the union warned of strike...
The government has accepted union, industry and local government proposals to settle disputes over the two-tier workforce this week.
The announcement by local government minister Nick Raynsford...
Town hall leaders are demanding a thorough analysis of the costs of reorganising local government if next year's referendums lead to elected regional assemblies being set up.
Education employers are to push for the abolition of the School Teachers' Review Body in an attempt to wrest back control over pay negotiations from Whitehall.
The chair of the National Employers'...
Asylum seekers are to be diverted away from private landlords into homes owned by councils and housing associations.
The Home Office is appealing to more social landlords to offer accommodation...
The rise of reality television offers 'important lessons' in the battle to re-engage the public with politics and encourage people to vote, Nick Raynsford said this week.
The local government...
Education watchdogs have attacked the standard of sports lessons in England's schools, claiming that only a third are rated 'good' or better.
In a report published on June 16, Ofsted inspectors...
The Audit Commission will take a more 'risk-sensitive' approach to inspections while Comprehensive Performance Assessments will 'focus on things that really matter', its new chief executive said this...
In the hothouse atmosphere of Whitehall, secrets have a habit of leaking out. Not so Alan Milburn's resignation as health secretary last week. Even his old sparring partner Gordon Brown was said to...
Sir Andrew Foster has called for integrated teams of inspectors drawn from the various public sector watchdogs to be set up to make the scrutiny regime more co-ordinated and effective.
The...
The government 'talks the talk' on granting the public sector more local autonomy, but when problems arise it immediately reverts to its centralist tendencies, the director of the Institute for...
A £250m scheme to help public sector workers find homes in high-cost areas will fail to meet its target of assisting 10,000 people by next April, says the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister....
Local authority finance experts this week demanded more investment autonomy from Whitehall, after a survey commissioned by Public Finance revealed widespread support for new freedoms.
Investment...
Local government minister Nick Raynsford has taken the first tentative steps towards full intervention at Hull City Council, warning the ruling Labour group that it has just six weeks to implement an...
Education authorities should fit sprinkler systems wherever possible in schools or face rocketing insurance premiums, insurer Zurich Municipal has warned.
It said the cost of arson in schools...
Scottish councils were this week praised by the Accounts Commission in a report on their handling of the costly early retirement of officers.
The report was conducted in the wake of decisions to '...
Local Government Association chair Sir Jeremy Beecham has joined the Treasury committee that oversees preparation for UK entry into the euro.
Beecham told Public Finance that he had not seen the...
Britain's public services are dogged by poor performance and high levels of customer dissatisfaction, while critics who believe privatisation has escalated problems are using the excuse as a '...
The new health service watchdog must be more objective, less prone to mistakes and more supportive than its predecessor, the NHS Confederation has warned.
The managers' body surveyed more than 40...
Critical inspection reports can undermine local government's attempts to improve services, the outspoken director of finance at the London Borough of Hackney said at the CIPFA conference at Harrogate...
|;¼ ?y criticised Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would be ranked as 'weak' if it were to undergo the same Audit Commission assessment process as local authorities, a...
Whitehall officials have held out an olive branch to local education authorities in an effort to quell the damaging row over schools funding that has been dogging the government for weeks.
Stephen...
It is inevitable that local government's code on the two-tier workforce will be now rolled out across the public sector, business leaders conceded this week, as final negotiations ended with an...
