The Scottish Government has awarded £7.2 million of funding to Scottish businesses to help grow their innovative energy-saving projects.
This is the second round of funding from the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF), which supports projects that aim to reduce carbon emissions that are created during energy-intensive manufacturing processes.
In this round, nine projects have been awarded funding - including food and drink manufacturing and timber pallet processing.

Planned industrial action by council workers in Scotland has been suspended after the Scottish Government provided £77.5 million to fund an improved pay offer.
The new funding has allowed local authority organisation COSLA to make an offer to unions worth an overall value of 4.27%, with a rise of 5.63% being offered for the lowest paid workers.
All three trade unions have called off industrial action.

Hundreds of thousands of rural homes and businesses are set to benefit from major internet speed upgrades.
Up to £800 million in government investment will be made available to modernise broadband infrastructure in rural areas of England, Scotland and Wales.
Lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband will be provided to around 312,000 homes and businesses.

A survey for the RAC has revealed that drivers' despair at the state of local roads has reached the highest level ever.
56 per cent of drivers surveyed for the RAC Report on Motoring say the condition and maintenance of roads for which councils are responsible was one of their top motoring concerns, up seven percentage points compared to 2023 (49%).
The state of local roads is now 21 percentage points ahead of the second biggest concern which is the cost of insuring a vehicle and 24 percentage points higher than the third biggest issue, the cost of fuel.

Warrington Borough Council has partnered with Zest to provide new new electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure for the town.
150 charging sockets will be installed across 35 streets.
The locations have been selected to prioritise areas where the need is greatest – where people don’t typically have driveways for home charging.
A mix of fast and slow charge points have been chosen to serve medium stay and overnight parking sessions.
All of the charge points will accept contactless payments.

North Northamptonshire Council has introduced a new all electric 27t refuse vehicle, which is estimated to save the council 60,000 litres of diesel and £75,000 over the course of its lifetime. The vehicle has been provided on contract hire by North Northamptonshire Council’s vehicle partner Specialist Fleet Services Ltd (SFS) as part of a significant vehicle replacement programme awarded in 2022.

Last year, £966,000 was awarded to local authorities in North Wales to deliver small Property Development Grants (PDGs) to improve commercial units and empty buildings in town centres.
The PDGs were delivered through the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns Programme to support regeneration and enhance town centre properties.
Property owners and occupiers have been supported to make improvements to their premises and bring vacant, commercial floor space back into beneficial business use.

A new government office development in Darlington has been given the go-ahead by planners.

North Northamptonshire Council has introduced a new all electric 27t refuse vehicle, which is estimated to save the council 60,000 litres of diesel and £75,000 over the course of its lifetime.

Eluned Morgan, the newly appointed first minister of Wales, has announced a reshuffle of the cabinet.