David Walker

About David Walker

David Walker is the former managing director for communications and public reporting at the Audit Commission. A long-standing journalist and well-known commentator on public policy issues, he is contributing editor to the Public Leaders Network

Behind the Budget, by David Walker

23 March 2011 | David Walker

Fiscally speaking today’s Budget was always going to be a non-event. The die was cast last year when the government decided to batter demand by rushing forward with its plan to shrink the state. Today’s halfpennies off thresholds and tinkering with duty are negligible by comparison. Read more...

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Public enemies within, by David Walker

7 March 2011 | David Walker

I’ve a question for Sir Bob Kerslake, the permanent secretary at Communities and Local Government. Are you now or have you ever been one of ‘the bureaucrats in government departments who concoct ridiculous rules and regulations that make life impossible’? Read more...

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Cameron’s chaotic ‘revolution’, by David Walker

21 February 2011 | David Walker

A little while ago a backbench Tory MP was rapidly shushed when he blurted out the purpose of government public service reforms. It was to create ‘chaos’. Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad – said Euripides – and David Cameron seems intent on doing just that to public sector staff. Read more...

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Abolition angst, by David Walker

16 February 2011 | David Walker

The Audit Commission cheats death! It’s now a fair bet – you could try laying odds at Paddy Power – that Eric Pickles’ bete noire will outlast his tenure as Communities Secretary. Read more...

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Pickles has a point on pay, by David Walker

3 February 2011 | David Walker

No sooner has Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, as reported, ‘attempted to end ministers’ war of words with councils’, than he launches a fresh assault on the competence and worth of council officials. ‘I think there’s a cadre of top officers whose salaries are wholly disproportionate for what they do’, he tells an interviewer. Read more...

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Shared services: a step too far, by David Walker

21 January 2011 | David Walker

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Questions over quango report, by David Walker

7 January 2011 | David Walker

The Commons Public Administration Select Committee has stuck it to the government and won headlines as a result. The MPs use uncompromisingly scathing language to attack the amateurism of the Cabinet Office in its bid to cull quangos. Read more...

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The commission must not be cowed, by David Walker

13 December 2010 | David Walker

Now that councils have their spending allocations, they will start budget making in earnest. With the financial sustainability of some of them problematic, district auditors will inevitably be thrust into the line of fire. Read more...

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Will Mervyn King pay the price? By David Walker

6 December 2010 | David Walker

Shock horror, hold the front page: Mervyn King is mouthy and arrogant, lets loose to American diplomats and has political views. Read more...

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A deafening silence, by David Walker

18 November 2010 | David Walker

Despite statements to the contrary, ministers are centralising more power. But councils’ lack of response is partly to blame Read more...

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