A new report from the Local Government Association (LGA) has revealed that investing earlier in preventative support in social care would improve people’s lives and save £3.17 for every pound spent.
The report was produced in partnership with key leaders across the social care field and published to coincide with the National Children's and Adult Services Conference alongside the Time to Act Reform Board.
It found potential savings to the public purse could reach £11.1 billion if preventative health and social care is scaled up across the country.

£22.6 million of funding has been announced for initiatives that will improve support for unpaid carers in England.

Billions of pounds in guarantees for housebuilders is now available, as part of a new support package confirmed by the Housing Minister.
An additional £3 billion in housing guarantees was initially announced in the Budget, with the guarantees available to help builders apply for more accessible loans from banks and lenders.
The government guarantees reduce the risk for lenders and encourage them to increase the supply of credit for housebuilders.

New statistics have been released which show that the Scottish Government’s five family payments have payed out over £1billion to families across Scotland to help end child poverty since their launch.
The figures from Social Security Scotland show that between February 2021 and September 2024 £905.6 million has been paid out in Scottish Child Payment and a further £172.3 million since the launch of Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods.

Projects testing test hybrid connectivity solutions in some of the remote and rural places in the UK are set to receive government funding.
While progress has been made on superfast and gigabit-capable broadband, there are still some locations, where satellites offer the only practical solution for connectivity.
The UK Space Agency is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) telecommunications research programme to help solve this problem.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its analysis of social landlords’ first year of Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) results, along with the results of its National Tenant Survey.
The TSMs are a set of questions that landlords must ask tenants about their service, and  management information data collected by landlords about the delivery of key services. They are intended to hold landlords to account in areas, such as repairs service, maintenance of homes and complaint handling.

The Mayor of London has unveiled plans for new rent-controlled homes to make housing more affordable for key workers in London.
The proposals could save key £600 a month on their rent, and provide a new, simpler rent-setting model for developers to deliver thousands of homes across the capital.
The rent-control homes would be built in addition to social rented homes and aimed at Londoners on ordinary incomes, who are unlikely to secure social housing but struggle to pay high private rents.
The Mayor has set a target of at least 6,000 of these homes by 2030.

Scottish first minister John Swinney will deliver a speech setting out his vision for Scotland.
In the St Andrew's Day speech, Swinney will promise to create conditions for every person in Scotland to thrive, while calling on the country to pull together in a spirit of collaboration to remove barriers to economic and social progress.
The speech to representatives from organisations across the public and private sectors will be e delivered one week before the publication of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget.

The Child Poverty Taskforce has met for the first time in Scotland.
The Taskforce is working on plans for an ambitious, cross-Government strategy to drive down child poverty and ministers heard from families, public bodies and charities.
The summit comes after the budget which included a new ‘Fair Repayment Rate’ in Universal Credit, from which Scotland's poorest households will benefit by £420 a year.
More than 200,000 children live in poverty in Scotland, with over 33,000 in Glasgow City.

A £140 million industry investment to get Britain building again has been launched, starting with 5,000 more construction apprenticeship places being made available.