Over the past few years Scotland has seen a number of proposals to change its local taxation system, from the ill-fated community charge in the late 1980s to the most recent but equally doomed...
The UK has a chronic problem in that its public sector is significantly larger than optimal, pay is much higher than in the private sector and productivity performance is disappointing
The Office for Budget Responsibility's autumn economic forecast is an admirably clear and detailed document. But its estimates may be overly optimistic on output, employment growth and borrowing
Yesterday the Irish government finalised a rescue deal for the country's beleaguered banks worth 85 billion euros. With all such large financial decisions, the initial test of success was seen to be...
The coalition's ideological opposition to any ringfenced funding has come seriously unstuck. They just have to admit there are occasions when such ringfenced funding is needed and desirable.
Those of us who benefited from a heavily subsidised higher education system in the 1960s and 1970s could make a contribution to 'generational equality'. Spreading such a tax over a larger population...
The Local Growth White Paper talks a good talk, but a closer examination reveals that the outcome of this economic rebalancing act could end up topsy-turvy.
When businesses face financial losses, they look at ways of bringing in income as well as cutting costs. But in local government, we have tended to focus only on reducing costs
Michael Gove's education agenda represents far more continuity with the reforms introduced by Tony Blair and David Blunkett than it does a dramatic change
The Welsh Assembly Government has given councils in Wales an early Christmas present in yesterday's settlement. Wales has followed a different path to England and has not ring-fenced the NHS
Housing Minister Grant Shapps has said that council and RSL tenants could be forced to leave their homes after two years. But the plan risks removing the 'social glue' that holds our communities and...
The time has come for a national agreement between suppliers, government, professional bodies and the wider public sector for an agreed standard protocol on 'open book' accounting
Much has been made of Danny Alexander's 'grilling' before the National Assembly's Finance Committee yesterday. But he had some interesting things to say about devolution and finance
All eyes are currently focused on the financial crisis in Ireland and the imminent bailout from the IMF and the EU. The reality is that property market collapses have led to such catastrophic...
Reading reports of the ongoing row between George Osborne and Chris Huhne over the status of the government's proposed Green Bank bought back anxious memories of my failed history A level
Local authority managers must take a long-term approach to cuts. Otherwise, they will create problems and costs in the future, warns Zurich's Andrew Jepp
It looks like we will have some fun accounting issues with the new system for financing higher education. In particular, around whether it really is a 'loan' system as against a 'graduate tax'.
There is a need for a cadre of commercial managers to work alongside strategic and operational leaders to support politicians make the decisions and implement them
With several millions of public sector workers and their families reining in their discretionary spending, the impact on GDP growth in the UK could be huge
