Rayner pledges additional £350m to tackle housing crisis

Mark Wynn originally joined the county council in April 2023 as director of resources before taking on the chief executive role in an interim capacity last August.

Simon Case, the former cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, will chair the delivery board of the regeneration vehicle set up by government, BAE Systems and Westmorland & Furness Council.

The areas were among six selected by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner to be part of Labour’s fast-track devolution programme. 

What next for ‘levelling up’ after the government dropped the contentious label? Sean Fielding of Cavendish, and former Oldham Council leader, explores.

Ambition North Wales and both local authorities have welcomed the Chancellor’s rubber-stamping of a £160m investment over 10 years, earmarked to grow advanced manufacturing in the area.

A 12-week consultation has begun as the public body looks to set in place a five-year regional transport plan covering rail, road, bus, walking, and cycling.

Businesses from all corners of the built environment sector are throwing their weight behind a campaign to pressure government into providing grant funding to solve the North’s viability crisis. Have you signed up yet? 

Along with Cheshire’s RAAC-affected Leighton Hospital, the rebuild of the Crumpsall estate is included in wave one of the New Hospitals Programme’s delivery timetable – but Preston and Lancaster must wait until 2035.

A report to the city council’s cabinet seeks sign-off for the Liverpool Urban Mobility and Public Spaces Plan, an investment programme running up to 2045.

Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumberland Council have committed to pursuing a devolution deal for the county.

Liverpool City Council and partners want to deliver 10,000 homes across brownfield sites stretching from the city centre’s fringe through to Bootle town centre in Sefton.

A more stable economy and increased local powers and funding will improve the property landscape, however shifting the dial on development and investment will be a slow process as the region fights to overcome hurdles.

Greater Manchester’s spatial strategy remains a point of contention, with a judge affirming that at least one legal challenge of the framework merits consideration by the High Court.

Published yesterday, the draft bill sets out Labour’s intention to unshackle the North’s towns and cities. While it has been widely welcomed, leaders across the North are wary of the ‘distraction’ local government reorganisation could cause.

Mayors will be handed a suite of new powers to allow more decisions on planning, housing, and transport to be made locally, while district councils are to be scrapped as part of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s plan to allow towns and cities outside London to “take back control”.

Property professionals across the North universally welcomed the revised National Planning Policy Framework, especially its changes to the Green Belt.

Councils will have 12 weeks from today to ensure new local plans are up-to-date with the revised National Planning Policy Framework, which reintroduces mandatory housing targets, requires Green Belt reviews, and increases the number of years for which authorities must demonstrate a housing land supply.

Housing providers, developers, and investors have been loud and clear about what needs to be done to achieve the government’s housing goal of 1.5m homes before the end of this Parliament. Place North has listened and is taking action.

Housing applications that comply with local plans could be decided by council planning officers rather than politicised committees according to proposals unveiled by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner yesterday.