Finance

Second perm sec to announce he is leaving the civil service after vying for top Treasury job

Proposals to make local government financially self-sufficient by 2020 must not be impacted by George Osborne's business-boosting measures, a lobby group has warned

Chancellor says: "I’ve made adjustments to my plans to make sure we are going to live within our means"

Plans to end local authority reliance on Whitehall gather pace

Chancellor pays tribute to "great public servant" – but SNP MPs jeer reference to "impartiality"

Weaker growth and delayed sales of government assets expected to contribute to missed target

"The obvious efficiency savings have come through in the early period," says former head of the civil service – as chancellor prepares to outline £4bn of further spending cuts

“Acute hospital trusts are at crisis point,” warns PAC chair Meg Hillier

Spending watchdog questions the government’s claims on SME spending, and urges departments to make sure that initiatives to improve commercial capability do not undermine attempts to support small companies

"We fully appreciate that we will need to do better in the future," says DfE perm sec Chris Wormald, as switch to new accounting method delays parliamentary scrutiny of his department's finances

Education secretary Nicky Morgan says consultation marks “biggest step towards fairer funding in over a decade”

Former PAC chair Margaret Hodge questions whether ministerial accountability system is fit for purpose and warns MPs are more interested in new policies than scrutinising spending. But her warnings over civil service capability are challenged by a senior Ministry of Defence offficial