It is incumbent on everyone in local government to work together to protect essential services and keep job losses to a minimum. But are finance and HR helping to build sustainable, smaller councils...
A number of Scottish councils appear to have cut corners in their affordability assessments for schools PFI projects. They have made optimistic assessments or failed to assess the availability of...
The triumphant early days of the coalition are rapidly becoming soured by the demands of Cabinet government and political compromise on entwined parties. The strain is showing
Despite their differences, Ed Balls and Ed Miliband can work well together at the top of the Labour Party. The truth is the two Eds need each other and the Tories may come to rue the day they got...
For this government, localism clearly means delegation to anyone but local government. This is creating potentially dysfunctional fragmentation in local services
Draft guidance on PFI contracts, published today, shows the Treasury wants to leave things pretty much as they are. The PFI industry must be pleasantly surprised by the cautiousness of these...
There shouldn't be any surprise that the UK economy shrunk by 0.5% in the final quarter of last year. The best that we can hope for in the foreseeable future is low growth rates occasionally slipping...
George Osborne has finally been found out. Yesterday, outgoing CBI chief Richard Lambert bemoaned the absence of any serious growth strategy in government.
Everyone involved in public services seems to support localism, decentralisation and the Big Society in principle. The problem is a lack of agreement on the role that councils will play
With money drastically limited, and as public sector job losses begin to bite, cleantech's unique potential should be prioritised across Whitehall. DECC, BIS and HM Treasury should be working...
There was probably never a better time than now to revisit the bizarre scene at the end of the Life of Brian, and the advice from the Monty Python team to 'always look on the bright side of life'.
Oldham and Saddleworth produced the traditional collapse of the government party (or parties) vote - only normally it takes a bit longer than eight months to happen
The government wants a smaller state and this includes local government. Fine - so let there be an honest and open debate, and recognition from Whitehall that this means cuts to local services
It has been suggested that Manchester City Council announced its 2,000 job losses yesterday as a 'spoiler' for the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election. Sadly, nothing so Machiavellian has...
The state of both the 'Yes' and 'No' campaigns in the referendum on primary legislative powers in Wales has been a cause of concern for some time. A low turnout seems inevitable
Today's school league tables should be a cause for celebration. But it must be remembered that much of the improvement took place as a result of Labour policies that the coalition has wisely decided...
