Small businesses have been allocated a share of £1.2 million as part of the Rural Transport Accelerator Fund, which aims to support the development of innovative concepts that will improve rural transport, in partnership with local authorities.
The scheme is designed to boost the wellbeing of communities, support rural jobs and kickstart local economies.
Eight projects have won £150,000 each.

A new survey has found that just over eight in 10 councils are on course to overspend adult social care budgets.

More than 375 leaders from domestic and international institutional investors, developers, housebuilders, regeneration specialists, housing associations, and Combined and Local Authorities have met in London, with the goal of creating new partnerships to increase housebuilding and urban regeneration.
The meeting was part of the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Homes England’s broader approach to secure new private investment into housing and the renewal of towns and cities.

Two new non-executive directors have been appointed to the Board of the Regulator of Social Housing.
John Liver and Robert Light joined the board on 1 November. The appointments were confirmed by the parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, on behalf of the deputy prime minister.

A new public-private partnership, focussed on affordable housing delivery has been announced by Pension Insurance Corporation, Muse, and Homes England.
It is hoped that the Habiko partnership will deliver 3,000 low-carbon, low-energy affordable homes for the rental market, unlocking institutional investment.
The rent for the new homes will be set at 20 per cent below the local market rent.

London achieved 57 per cent higher carbon savings in proposed new buildings than required by national building regulations in 2023, new City Hall data has revealed.

The UK is set to create the world's first real-time surveillance system to monitor the threat of future pandemics.
A new partnership will be formed between the government, Genomics England, UK Biobank, NHS England, and Oxford Nanopore.

A generative AI chatbot that is helping small businesses is being put through the next stage of testing.
People will be able to ask the tool for advice on business rules and support, with the chatbot linked from 30 of GOV.UK’s business pages.
Those with access to the trial can find information about tax and the support available to them.
The tool is being built by a team of in-house data scientists, developers and designers using OpenAI’s GPT-4o technology which aims to help people more quickly navigate complex advice to understand what matters to them.