Government

The housing secretary has announced plans to take planning decisions on digital infrastructure, laboratories, water infrastructure, onshore wind and housing away from local authorities. Angela Rayner told MPs yesterday afternoon (30 July) that she would consult on a raft of policies aimed at boosting building, including releasing greenbelt land and…

A former Bank of England economist and ex-BBC chairman will decide where proposed new towns should be built. Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner appointed Kate Barker as deputy chair and Sir Michael Lyons as chair of the New Towns taskforce. Both have authored major housing reviews that…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has shelved two “unaffordable” road projects, and confirmed reviews into government transport and healthcare building projects. Reeves announced yesterday (29 July) that the planned A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme (CGI pictured) and the A27 Arundel bypass would not go ahead. In addition, an £85m regional railway-improvement programme faces…

Rachel Reeves is set to halt some of the largest government projects in a bid to balance the books, including the New Hospital Programme and Lower Thames Crossing. The chancellor (pictured) is expected to pause or cancel some of the government’s most troubled capital commitments in a speech this afternoon,…

Kier was the biggest construction supplier to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the latest financial year, as the department’s spending ramped up, Construction News can reveal. The contractor, which was also its top construction supplier in 2020/21, as well as in both the 2019 and 2020 calendar years, returned…

One contractor has dominated Homes England’s spend on site preparation work, according to official figures. The housing and regeneration quango spent more money with John Sisk & Son than any other contractor in the past two financial years, Construction News can reveal. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act…

Councils do not know what condition their roads are in, leaving them unable to assess where repair work is urgently needed, a major report has said. Amid a lack of data and an ever-increasing backlog of road-repair work, the Department for Transport (DfT) is not achieving value for money on…

The health secretary has ordered officials to review the £20bn programme to build 40 hospitals by 2030 and raised doubts over its delivery timeline. Wes Streeting (pictured centre) told the House of Commons yesterday (23 July) that he had asked officials “as a matter of urgency” to report on the…

The government’s planned new skills quango will partner rather than replace the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), industry leaders have predicted. Following the announcement this week of early details of what Skills England will do, senior figures who will work with the new body said they did not expect radical…

A bill to settle contractual or financial disputes faster will proceed under the new Labour government, after it took advice from the Law Commission. The Arbitration Bill will continue through parliament following the King’s Speech earlier this week. It was introduced to parliament by the previous Conservative government last November and…