Accounting & Business

The crisis in the banking and property sectors is having many knock-on effects.  One of the most severe is in social housing, where providers have found capital receipts from sales and joint ventures slow down and in some cases almost completely dry-up.   Over recent years, income from sales has formed an increasingly important role

The view from: Ed Mayo Secretary General and chief executive of Co-operatives UK, the sector’s representative body Will co-operatives be a force for the delivery of public services? There is a growing consensus that the co-operative and mutual models will be fundamental to the delivery of public services within a short period of time.  There

“This is the biggest shift of power from government to people since the right to buy your council house in the 1980s,” said shadow chancellor George Osborne.  The grand claim was a reference to a radical proposal to transform public services by giving workers a right to convert state services into workers’ co-operatives.   As

The coalition government is not merely cutting public spending: it is radically and speedily reshaping the public sector.  By the end of the process, public bodies are intended to be leaner and fitter.  They will also be expected to be better at generating commercial income.    For the transformation to be implemented effectively it requires

Public bodies are under enormous and growing pressure to reduce their carbon emissions and to operate in an environmentally sustainably manner.  But with the gigantic fiscal deficit bearing down across the public sector, tensions are developing between the two sets of priorities.   One initiative that marries improved environmental performance and greater focus on costs

The view from:   Paraic Bergin FCCA, Regional Director, Ireland, The Alchemy Network and former chief executive of the Galway Clinic     Q.  You have worked at senior levels in the public and private sectors – what are the differences?   A.  Responsiveness and accountability. Private enterprise without a monopoly must respond to market

The View From: Ian Knowles FCCA, Assistant Director, Children, School and Families, Hertfordshire County Council Q. What are your main challenges? Ensuring that central services understand the needs of the frontline and that frontline services understand the corporate context.  To reduce costs, back office functions must change.  We must ensure that increased responsibilities for frontline

These are tough times for charities.  When recession hits, the public becomes less generous.  Worse still, organisations funded by public money expect to have grants and contracts cut substantially.    Analysis of charitable giving conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation together with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)  found that donations to charities fell

  Joining-up public services has been a holy grail of public policy since the Labour government was merely a Labour opposition.  Yet the intervening years of government hectoring, performance targets and constant restructuring of public bodies has always seemed to offer more hope than actuality when it comes to abolishing the public service silos.  

The View From: Ian Knowles FCCA, Assistant Director, Children, School and Families, Hertfordshire County Council Q. What are your main challenges? Ensuring that central support services understand the needs of frontline services and frontline services understand the corporate context. Frontline services have priority over back office functions, but to reduce costs back office functions must

Radical things are happening in some Conservative-controlled local authorities.  Councils are re-examining exactly what services they must provide and how.  The result of their deliberations is that many more are outsourcing a range of back and front office services, while at least one is considering introducing two-tier services – the basic option is free, while

Radical things are happening in several Conservative-controlled local authorities.  Councils are considering exactly what services they must provide and how.  The result is that many more are outsourcing a range of back and front office services, while at least one is considering introducing two-tier services – the basic option is free, while the affluent will