Archive for June, 2008
Farewell Ken – are we to blame?: Co-operative News
The Paul Gosling column
Farewell Ken – are we to blame?
Ken Livingstone was not a perfect mayor of London, but overall he was a very good one. On a personal level I am sad he is gone: I interviewed him once and had a very pleasant afternoon on the House of Commons terrace, listening to him [...]
Questions of Cash: The Independent
Questions of cash: ‘What is this excess service charge?’
By Paul Gosling
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Q. I am being harassed by my housing association, Bush Homes, for extortionate service charges that I don’t owe. I bought a flat through a government home ownership initiative three years ago. Since then Bush Homes has repeatedly raised my service charges [...]
From a distance: Health Service Review
From a distance
by Paul Gosling
Private sector healthcare providers have responded with their feet to delays and confusion over phase two of the Independent Sector Treatment Centres programme. Many are no longer seeking large volumes of NHS patients and have walked away from dependence on NHS contracts.
Back in 2003, it looked very different. A £1.7bn programme [...]
Saving Post Offices: Co-operative News
Saving Post Offices
by Paul Gosling
Eventually, the size of the Post Office network will be viable at about 7,500 branches, the Government recently told the House of Commons Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Select Committee. Given that the network stands now at almost twice that size, we have an awful lot more painful branch closures to [...]
The riddle of Northern Ireland’s education policy: Public Finance
The riddle of Northern Ireland’s education policy
By Paul Gosling
“A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”, was Winston Churchill’s description of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It equally well describes Northern Ireland’s post-primary education policy. An alternative choice of words could be ‘chaos, wrapped in a conflict, inside a mess, that represents [...]
Northern Ireland public sector faces swingeing job cuts: Public Finance
Northern Ireland public sector faces swingeing job cuts
by Paul Gosling
Over 33,000 jobs in Northern Ireland’s public sector face the axe, some 15% of the total, according to the Nipsa union. The warning follows an announcement that 450 jobs will go at the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, 15% of its total workforce, over the next three [...]
Social landlord role expands: Public Eye
Social landlord role expands – find tenants jobs
by Paul Gosling
Just ten days into her job and Caroline Flint made national headlines as housing ministers seldom do these days. Some housing professionals acted angrily to Flint’s question of whether new social housing tenants should be required to enter into ‘commitment contracts’, requiring them to actively seek [...]
Credit crunch bites public sector: Public Eye
The public sector crunch
by Paul Gosling
It has been like a perverse game of pass the parcel. Only when the music stops does it become clear which banks have been left holding billions of pounds of losses. But the impacts of the credit crunch go beyond the banking industry and it is now clear that some [...]
Counter attacks: Public Finance
Counter attacks, by Paul Gosling
The Post Office is trying to slash its local branch network but residents are up in arms and councils are rushing to the rescue. So it’s no surprise then that the closures have become a hot election issue. Paul Gosling reports
Local authorities are used to finding themselves between a rock and [...]
Question of balance: Public Finance
Question of balance, by Paul Gosling
The government could find itself caught out by its own fiscal rules if the delayed introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards means that Private Finance Initiative debt goes on the balance sheet. Paul Gosling investigates
Gordon Brown’s reputation for fiscal prudence, which has already taken a battering thanks to the credit [...]
