The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has made progress in setting up its new programme to release enough public sector land for 160,000 homes by 2020 but the programme has had a relatively slow start.
The use of PFI by local authorities to improve housing, usually in areas with a high need for housing and where stock condition is particularly poor, has had a measure of success. However, risks to value for money of the programme have not been managed.
There have been improvements in the way government plans and manages public sector activity, but the NAO does not consider that there exists a coherent, enduring framework for planning and management.
This report is published alongside ‘Government’s management of its performance: progress with single departmental plans’.
This investigation outlines the government’s strategy and objectives for managing land disposals and the progress of several key disposal programmes.
The Regional Development Agencies’ physical regeneration programmes have helped to generate additional regional wealth. However, because of Agency weaknesses in identifying the projects which would maximise regional economic growth, the National Audit Office is unable to conclude the Agencies have secured as much benefit as they should have. Since 1999, the eight RDAs outside of […]
By setting up an Infrastructure Financing Unit, Treasury helped reactivate the lending market for private finance projects. While the costs for projects in 2009 represented value for money, Treasury should not presume that continuing the use of private finance at current rates will be value for money.
The Annual Report highlights that, during 2014-15, we certified 442 accounts, published 65 major reports and supported 60 hearings of the Committee of Public Accounts. We have helped create £5.5 billion in savings across the public sector over the past five years, including £1.15 billion in 2014. Since 2010-11, we have reduced our net resource spend by 23%, after allowing for inflation.
The Cabinet Office is responsible for the Business Appointment Rules, but has not published any guidelines, and has no oversight of departmental compliance.
This briefing for the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee provides an overview of the key features of the policy and regulatory framework for electricity generation, and the nature of the transition required over the next 10 years to meet emissions reduction and renewable energy targets.
A third of major government projects due to deliver in the next five years are rated as in doubt or unachievable unless action is taken to improve delivery. Greater transparency on project performance is required.
There has been much public discussion about the affordability of public service pensions. To inform that debate, the National Audit Office has today published a report designed to bring greater transparency to, and understanding of, the cash costs involved. Today’s report found: Total payments to more than 2 million pensioners in the UK’s four largest […]
This report reviews government’s progress in improving the planning and spending framework since we last reported in July 2016.
Regulators and government need to work together better to ensure that vulnerable consumers get the support they need.
The National Audit Office has concluded that the public support provided to UK banks by the Treasury was justified, given the scale of the economic and social costs if one or more major banks had collapsed. In providing that support, moreover, the Treasury met two of the government’s principal objectives: protecting depositors’ money in banks and […]
The NAO strategy 2015-16 to 2017-18 sets out how our public audit perspective will help Parliament hold government to account and improve public services.
The Department of Health has developed an ambitious and comprehensive strategy for dementia. However, there has not yet been a robust approach to implementation, according to a National Audit Office report published today. Despite the Department stating, since 2007, that dementia is now a national priority, it has not been given the levers or urgency […]
The National Audit Office has warned that the value for money of 43 major government projects worth around £200 billion is at risk because of significant weaknesses in the Government’s commercial skills and expertise. But there is an even greater risk to many other complex projects where skills shortages are not being assessed systematically. The […]
It is not possible to show that the Crown Commercial Service has achieved more than departments would otherwise have achieved by buying common goods and services themselves.
A National Audit Office review of the regime for overseeing markets and enforcing competition law in the UK has found that it is generally effective and well regarded by comparison with international equivalents. However, the NAO has found that the competition system as a whole must still address a number of challenges to function as […]
This report assesses how prepared government departments are for the changes required at the border after EU exit.