Future investment in public services will suffer if Britain fails to join the euro, European commissioner Neil Kinnock has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance , Kinnock, who is vice...
Councils will be forced to 'run to stand still' if the Audit Commission's proposals for reassessing the performance league tables are implemented, the Local Government Association has warned.
The...
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are threatening to join forces in the House of Lords to scupper government plans to curtail jury trials.
This followed a Commons vote on May 19 that slashed...
Scotland's deputy first minister, Jim Wallace, is to take on the task of reviving its flagging economy, at the heart of First Minister Jack McConnell's new administration.
Wallace, the Liberal...
Ministers and doctors' leaders reached an impasse over the future of the NHS consultants' contract this week.
Amid a growing sense of crisis, the British Medical Association gave the government a...
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council has become the first to claim a reward from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for meeting its interim Local Public Service Agreement targets.
The council...
Local authorities hoping to transfer individual housing estates to new landlords dominate the list of proposed stock transfers for 2003.
The list, published this week by the Office of the Deputy...
The rising cost of primary care drugs and clinical negligence claims has thrown NHS Wales's finances into chaos, it was claimed this week, with overall deficits of £44.1m threatening financial...
Leaders of business and public sector workers have exchanged insults over the role of private firms in providing public services.
Confederation of British Industry president Sir John Egan told the...
The government has fined Capita £1.8m for its failings at the Criminal Records Bureau while granting the company an extra £8.4m to compensate it for last-minute changes to the system, Public Finance...
Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to allow schools to use money earmarked for building improvements to ease budget shortages violates good accounting practice, CIPFA has warned.
The...
Teaching unions have described Education Secretary Charles Clarke's overhaul of tests for primary school children as an 'awkward halfway house' that will give the false impression that the government...
Growing mistrust of public bodies is being prompted by suspicions that they are not open and honest with service users, the Audit Commission has warned.
Research by pollster Mori has found that,...
Government plans to dock the housing benefit of tenants who indulge in antisocial behaviour have met a hostile response from local authorities and housing associations.
Work and Pensions Secretary...
The Local Government Association will use its annual conference in Harrogate in July to highlight authorities' fears they are being sidelined in the debate over asylum seekers.
A motion, proposed...
The government is creating a new NHS internal market and it is unclear whether it will lead to better patient care, the King's Fund claimed this week.
Ministers have consistently denied they are...
Councils could be given powers to take charge of empty homes and rent them to families in need.
Proposals to make better use of England's 300,000 long-standing empty homes were outlined on May 22...
It has had more false starts than the 1993 Grand National, but the end now finally looks in sight for the year-long firefighters' dispute.
In what has turned into a bitter test of union, central...
Chief executives and social services directors must clarify their roles and lines of accountability to ensure there is no repeat of the Anna Climbié case, a report has warned.
Shared...
Anyone who thought that urban development corporations were as dead as the Thatcher government that created them should think again.
More than five years after the last generation of UDCs closed,...
Ministers must come up with more funds for employer-led education and training or British productivity will continue to suffer, trade union bosses warned this week.
The Trades Union Congress,...
The government aims to accelerate its foundation trust initiative by encouraging the first wave of the new organisations to help their neighbours achieve the status, too.
The Conservatives have started a row after pledging to scrap university tuition fees if they are returned to power, which they believe will save £700m.
The National Union of Students and the...
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council is failing to meet its statutory duties to vulnerable children, and its services for adults are in need of 'radical overhaul', inspectors have found.
A damning...
The government's vision of NHS care provided by a mix of public and private sector bodies moved a step closer this week.
Private firms, including some from overseas, have been invited to bid to run...
