David Osborne, a proponent of choice in public services, suggested that schools were an exception and should not be freed up in this way. The coalition government should reflect on this.
In many areas of life - any kind of healthcare, finance, business - we expect advice and legislation to be based on some kind of evidence. And yet when it comes to education, the work of researchers...
It was encouraging to hear Bob Neill, the new junior local government minister, tell the Local Leadership Centre's Total Place Summit last week that he was enthusiastic for the idea and principles of...
The Queen's Speech placed welfare reform at the heart of the new Government's strategy for getting 'five million plus people languishing on benefits into work and out of poverty'
Coalition agreements are a recipe for inactivity, we have been told (not least by the Conservatives in a pre-election party political broadcast). Compromise and trade-off inevitably lead to weak and...
The LibDems' decision to join the Tories in government will cost them in the long term, just as the lack of a second effective opposition party will cost democracy
Councils have new flood management responsibilities at a time of spending cuts. So can they cope, asks Andrew Jepp in the latest of PF’s regular series of sponsored columns.
So the axe has started to fall – or in the more delicate terms of David Laws, the scalpel has started to slice. Cutting £6.2bn now is more of a symbol of the coalition’s commitment to cuts than...
The new coalition government has announced a £6.2bn headline cut to public spending in the current year. Since £500m is being recycled into additional spending or tax cuts, and the £704m earmarked...
Scotland may have been given a year's reprieve on spending cuts, but the Holyrood Government will have no alternative but to fundamentally re-evaluate its spending priorities and Concordat...
Public bodies spend £765m a year on printing, stationery and general office expenses, and almost £1.5bn on computers. Some pay more than others for the same things, but just signing up to a...
Public servants will breathe a sigh of relief now they know that Comprehensive Area Assessments are to be abolished, The emphasis should now change from compliance to responsibility.
That the new government has included reform of social care funding in its priorities will be greeted with relief. The political acrimony that preceded the campaign, and its absence as a key issue...
With announcements due next week on how the government proposes to find £6bn in Whitehall savings to help reduce the deficit, the spotlight will fall on public sector finance functions
Governments come and go. But the political gameplaying never stops. So this week we had the new chancellor and chief secretary to the Treasury tut-tutting and sucking their teeth, like a pair of...
The Conservative-LibDem proposals on constitutional reform could result in anarchy if the coalition broke up. They should take a step back and start again
Will Hutton's new commission on public sector pay is a timely initiative. Over the past few years, a ‘bidding-war’ has taken place between public sector organisations and this has led to rampant pay...
The public sector has implemented efficiency savings for many years and most of the easy options have already been taken. The term ‘efficiency savings’ is also used rather loosely and can mean...
Public expenditure cuts will be real and deep. They will start this year and continue for the remainder of this Parliament. The emergency Budget and the Spending Review later this autumn will only...
