Leadership at both political and managerial levels is distracted and focused on internal issues, says report

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that the Right to Buy scheme is to be extended to housing association tenants.
Currently, tenants in council homes are eligible to buy their homes at a discounted price of up to 70 off the market value dependent on how long they have lived there. However, the scheme is less generous for those in homes owned by housing associations.
The government estimates that extending the scheme would mean an extra 2.5 million tenants would gain the right to buy.

The Department for Transport has announced its intention to remove the controversial Golborne Link from the current HS2 Bill.
The Golborne Link – which connects HS2 to the West Coast Mainline – will be removed from the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill after its second reading following clear recommendations set out in last year’s Union Connectivity Review.
Back in April, rail experts and engineers warned that cancelling the Golborne link will significantly reduce the value of the high-speed line and significantly impact services to Scotland.

The government has announced four major road schemes in Newcastle, Cornwall, Greater Manchester and Southampton

UNISON, GMB and Unite, the three local government unions representing 1.4 million local authority employees, have submitted a pay claim for staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to receive a pay boost of at least £2,000 each.
The unions say that only a significant rise will help protect services and enable staff to weather the growing cost of living pressures.

Annemarie O’Donnell will be made an OBE for three decades of service and the city’s role in hosting COP26

The government has confirmed that newly announced regulator ARGA (Audit Reporting and Governance Authority) will become the system leader for local authority and health audit, as part of its response to the consultation on local audit framework published yesterday.

Bradford will now receive £275,000 in initial seed funding as it develops its plans for 2025.

Latest procurement looks for telecoms providers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cornwall

The reforms are expected to increase government spending with SMEs, which increased for the fourth consecutive year to a record £19.3 billion in 2020/21.