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
Winston Churchill is not one of my heroes. But in one area of public life he remains a beacon of sanity and good practice that puts present day coalition politicians to shame
The education secretary is right to aim for a national funding formula, where schools are directly funded by Whitehall. But getting there will be a huge problem, and the obstacles en route could...
Student fees affect so many people that opposition will grow as more and more understand the impact on them and their children, and the fact that there was a fairer and workable alternative available
Think about the implementation muddles the government has managed to generate around Child Benefit and multiply that by thirty and you get some idea of the train wreck on the horizon.
Getting more unemployed people into work is a key aim of the coalition. The Work Programme, combined with an overhaul of benefits, is the vehicle to make this happen
When the Commission on 2020 Public Services first met, one of our challenges was to wake people up to the looming crisis. Well, nobody is asleep any more
