Councils have accused the government of penalising them for innovation by denying them cash for policies which are later recommended and funded by the government.
A rise of 7% has been forecast in council tax almost three times the rate of inflation in the next financial year, with householders facing an average £56 increase in their bills.
Directly elected mayors for major cities in England and Wales could be in place as early as spring 2001 as the government this week signalled it wanted to speed legislation through parliament.
The Treasury is to more than double the number of cross-government spending programmes but has played down claims that this is an assault on the financial independence of individual Whitehall...
The government's crackdown on fraud in the National Health Service started in earnest this week with new powers for the NHS Tribunal to disqualify practitioners who have committed fraud.
The new team to promote the Private Finance Initiative will help councils overcome any skill shortages that may stop them pressing ahead with schemes, finance directors have been told.
Rural districts are likely to benefit hugely from radical changes in the way Scotland's 15 health boards are funded. But the new system is not likely to be implemented before 2001/02, it emerged this...
The chief secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Smith, is to create a series of Service Delivery Agreements spanning the whole of government, he reveals in this week's Public Finance .
Auditors this week demanded that European commissioners seize a 'historic opportunity' and overhaul working practices in the European Union to stop the annual haemorrhaging of millions of pounds.
The government will put local government political reorganisation on the fast track next week when it publishes the bill that will pave the way for directly elected mayors.
Two senior government ministers have set out to find a cure for the plague of form-filling and local government is due to be one of the chief beneficiaries.
On-line news and information services targeted at government have been granted their first framework agreements by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency. The five-year deals with the...
Legislation that will pave the way for the setting up of the new body to promote the Private Finance Initiative, Partnerships UK (Puk), was published this week after the Queen's Speech.
The health service is being urged to reduce its deficit next year, even if that means postponing initiatives and cutting other services, finance managers said this week.
An improvement agency covering the whole of the public sector in Scotland could be set up, following the publication next month of a report by the Best Value Taskforce.
The Local Government Association has accused education minister Estelle Morris of 'scaremongering' after she warned that a further 15 local authorities might have their services privatised in a drive...
The Prescription Pricing Authority has suggested setting aside its prescription backlog, wiping out two months' data, as one way of getting future prescribing information to health authorities and...
A major boost to the Private Finance Initiative in housing came this week with the government's announcement of four PFI schemes, totalling £185m, for the refurbishment of council houses.