The UK Government has just announced several late-stage amendments to its Planning and Infrastructure Bill – designed to stop unnecessary refusals, cut repeated legal challenges and get Britain building both housing and infrastructure faster.
The changes include new powers for ministers, protections for developments under judicial review and a streamlined role for Natural England. Find out what this could mean for the construction industry in our latest blog.
A new report shows that local authorities across England and Wales have, in their bank accounts, an estimated £2.8 billion of unused contributions from home builders.
This is money that builders contribute through what’s known as ‘Section 106’ contributions to local authorities as part of the planning agreement, the purpose of which is to fund local services and infrastructure upgrades. Find out more about how these important funds are going unspent in this week’s blog.
The construction sector continued its trend of recovery during December 2020, thanks largely to a sharp rise in house-building along with strong order books and new business wins on projects that had been deferred since the beginning of the pandemic. While that’s good news, stretched supply chains and delays at UK ports means our industry has simultaneously faced purchasing prices that have risen at a pace not been seen for nearly two years!