Ian Pearson, Northern Ireland's interim finance minister during the suspension of the Assembly, has announced a £2bn spending programme under the Reinvestment and Reform Initiative agreed last year...
Bradford has become the first local authority to have its early loan redemption fees paid to help fund a housing transfer.
The city council's handover of almost 25,000 homes to Bradford Community...
Students faced with the prospect of student debt are heading for northern universities at the expense of London, according to figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service....
A former local authority chief executive this week started work as the UK's newest crimebuster. Powers came into force on February 25 which allow Jane Earl to go after the assets of criminals as...
A £60m campaign to clean up hospitals and provide better food is working, health minister Lord Hunt said this week.
A Department of Health survey found that almost 60% of hospitals now have good...
Buses remain the 'Cinderella' of public transport services and should receive a higher priority, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Two out of every three journeys on public...
Unison Scotland has called for the effective abolition of the Private Finance Initiative in a manifesto launched ahead of May's elections for the country's Parliament.
It said: 'The time has come...
A Commons committee has accused Whitehall departments of repeated administrative failures and departmental indifference in their approach to the Parliamentary ombudsman.
Capita, the business services group, said it expected to double its revenue from transport projects in 2003, following the apparent success of the London congestion charging scheme.
Despite a...
Councils will be able to keep millions of pounds gleaned from business rates if they generate economic growth across their communities, under plans unveiled by local government minister Nick...
The trust that built the first major Private Finance Initiative hospital lacks leadership and has failed to meet the needs of the local community, according to reports this week.
Government ministers have conceded that they will not stand in the way of attempts to make the BBC more accountable to licence-payers.
MPs rejected proposals to open the corporation up to public...
A revised GP contract will put patients at the heart of NHS primary care services by ushering in a radical reform of the way practices are funded.
The proposed contract, published late last week,...
A new partnership body set up to boost housing in the Northwest has admitted that it must attract substantial private money because of uncertainty over government funding.
Elevate East Lancashire...
Information technology contractor ITNet has been removed from Islington council's housing and council tax benefits contract. The London borough will take the service back in house on May 1....
The row over the education 'passporting' fiasco escalated this week, when the Local Government Association accused Charles Clarke of effectively ringfencing cash from council tax rises.
A letter...
The Liberal Democrats outlined their alternative 'cash-back' Budget this week, pledging free care for the elderly and the abolition of tuition and top-up fees for students, but no increases in public...
Growing use of tools such as offshore bank accounts to avoid paying tax could be costing the Treasury billions of pounds in lost revenue every year. Measures to combat the problem should be taken...
A West Country hospital trust accused of doctoring its waiting lists and accumulating millions of pounds in debts this week claimed it is on the mend, despite an Audit Commission report expressing '...
Paul Boateng, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been confirmed as the closing speaker at this year's CIPFA conference.
Other high-profile contributors include Charles Kennedy, the leader of...
A charity for the elderly has bitterly attacked a government U-turn on minimum environmental standards in care homes.
Ministers bowed to pressure from care-home owners and dropped key standards...
Local government minister Nick Raynsford has promised to continue paying for an expansion of councils' workforce training programmes providing a £27m pathfinder scheme launched this week is a success...
Charles Clarke's determination to force two councils to 'passport' education funds is nothing short of a unilateral declaration of independence against the rest of Whitehall, the chief executive of...
Unions launched a campaign this week to expand local government's deal to end the two-tier workforce into defence and health.
As the CBI and the Business Services Association savaged last week's...
Local authorities are locked in talks with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister over whether they should slash the discounts on offer to council tenants under the right to buy scheme.
Lower...
