The 2 billion pounds UK regeneration programme, the New Deal for Communities, compares favourably with international comparisons across three continents. The comparison was made by the National Audit Office as part of a review of regeneration approaches in USA, Canada, Germany, Netherlands and India. The review found that the UK achieved a higher level of community engagement than any of the programmes in other countries.The mandate of NDC is to ‘narrow the gap’ between deprived communities and the national average in five ‘theme’ areas of employment, education, health, crime, and the physical environment.

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As a first move to looking at the impact of variable and top-up fees when they are introduced in 2006, Sir Alan Langlands, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Dundee has been appointed to lead the work. Education Secretary Charles Clarke said last month that he would look carefully at how best to continue attracting high quality recruits to the public sector and the professions. There is a concern that fees could be a real deterrent to attracting graduates to work in the public services.Sir Alan will act as an independent person to oversee the report which will examine how the public and private sectors and the professions can sustain and improve recruitment opportunities for graduates, especially those students who will not qualify for the full 3000 pounds support package.

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By Ian Doig Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. Since devolution was introduced four years ago the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive have had the sole responsibility for running the health service, local government, police, fire, higher and further education, the environment and water. Devolved government has meant divergence from Westminster, including a different approach for securing higher performance from local government. The author looks at the impact of devolution and speculates on the future.