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 '...
Community health councils have welcomed the decision to delay their abolition by three months.
CHCs were due to be wound up on September 1 and be replaced with a system that includes patients'...
There is a 'pressing case' to expand local government's ground-breaking deal on the two-tier workforce to the rest of the public sector, the former transport secretary Stephen Byers said this week...
Torbay Council has won a major concession from the Audit Commission after reaching a deal to drop legal action against its Comprehensive Performance Assessment score.
A joint statement on June 4...
The train drivers' union Aslef is bucking its Labour Party affiliation by backing Ken Livingstone for re-election to his post as mayor of London.
At its Scarborough conference this week, the union...
The government's NHS modernisation plans were boosted this week as the British Medical Association sent out ballot forms effectively urging its GP members to accept new contract proposals.
The...
The government will need to invest heavily to make a success of radical changes to the voting process urged this week by the Electoral Commission.
Proposed reforms include individual rather than...
Two hospitals on the government's short list to become foundation trusts this autumn are the subject of 'serious' financial and managerial concerns at the Audit Commission, it was revealed this week...
Home Office officials this week defiantly defended the government's penal policy despite more evidence that Britain's jails are in crisis.
The department said there was 'no need for panic policy-...
The future of Labour-run Hull City Council was thrown into chaos this week after its chief executive was suspended for his alleged part in leaking the damning Audit Commission report on the authority...
Education action zones have not provided noticeable improvements in failing schools, it was confirmed this week.
A widely leaked Ofsted report published on June 1 said EAZs, run by councils,...
Liverpool plans to spend more than £45m to make a success of its status as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, after it secured the UK nomination on June 4.
It defeated bids from five other...
Ministers and public bodies have acted quickly and efficiently to correct past failures and put the £771m project to build a national football stadium at Wembley back on track, auditors claimed this...
Rail regulator Tom Winsor has admitted that he will find it more difficult to hold the public interest company Network Rail to account than he did its private sector predecessor Railtrack.
Speaking...
The government's patient choice scheme risks increasing inequality in the NHS, the King's Fund warned this week.
Its report, What is the real cost of more patient choice? , said extending patients...
Pensions Secretary Andrew Smith's green paper this week came under renewed fire after a survey revealed that 95% of employers feel it should have included reforms of the state pension system.
A...
Lack of financial management in schools was a 'critical factor' in this year's funding crisis, the Local Government Association claimed this week.
In comments likely to further inflame the debate...
The Scottish Executive is to set up a watchdog to oversee the operation of charities in the wake of controversy over the funding of a cancer research body.
Communities minister Margaret Curran...
Service in some English hospitals is now worse than it was in 2000, the Conservatives claimed this week.
The party compared waiting lists in March to those in December 2000. It found that at 53 of...
Prison reform experts have slammed the government's slow response to concerns about overcrowding in UK jails in the wake of yet another critical report by the sector's watchdog.
Following a damning...
Government plans to revive cottage hospitals are based on 'resources that do not exist and technology that has yet to be invented', the British Medical Association said this week.
In February,...
