Cambridge City Council is to buy all of its electricity from 100 per cent renewable sources for the first time.

John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary, is to address the SNP conference saying that local communities should be trusted with making ‘the big decisions about their own future’.
Swinney is to say that the SNP will ‘put national interest first’ by devolving more power to a local level., reconnecting local government and communities.

A new consultation has been launched on how best to introduce Clean Air Zones in key cities as part of plans to improve air quality.
Five cities - Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton - will be required to have the zones in place by 2020, targeting areas of the city where air quality problems are the most serious to reduce the impact on people’s health and create cleaner and healthier environments.

International tourists visiting Scotland broke through the £500 million spend barrier in the second quarter of the year for the first time.
Statistics by ONS show that overseas visitors spent £540 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to £493 million in same period in 2015 - the highest quarter two spend figures recorded.
Additionally, visitors from Europe spent £276 million in the quarter up to June 2016, more than half of the overseas expenditure in this period.

Councils are being encouraged to bid for government funding to boost the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs).
The £35 million package will see thousands more electric vehicle chargepoints installed on streets and at workplaces across the UK, after the number of new ULEVs registered rose by 250 per cent in just two years.

Research by the RAC Foundation has found that motorists made over 30,000 claims for vehicle damage as a result of poor roads in the last financial year.

New research by the State Street Corporation has found that Local Authority Pension Funds (LGPS) are continuing to grow their assets and fund membership.

Sheffield City Council has published its latest financial forecast for 2017-18, showing its budget is set to be slashed by £40 million over the nest year, with the authority prepared for further job losses.

Gwynedd Council has launched a consultation on whether it should increase council tax on properties which are not the sole property owned by the owner.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has raised safety concerns about two thirds of A&E units in England, claiming the drop in standards is partly due to underfunding of council care services, leading to overcrowding in hospitals.