Brighton City Council has identified 180 brownfield sites as having potential to provide space for a number of new homes that the region needs.
The locations are contained in the city council’s new Brownfield Land Register (BLR), and, if all were developed, would provide over 8,000 homes. The register is a new government requirement, aimed at helping councils bring forward new housing.
The city is required to provide a minimum of 13,200 homes by 2030, with the council stressing that 87 per cent of the city’s future housing is expected to be on brownfield sites.

£330 million from dormant bank and building society accounts will be used to help the homeless and disadvantaged young people over the next four years.

The Prime Minister has said that around 16,000 people have already benefited from the changes to stamp duty announced in the autumn Budget.

Some councils are paying up to seven times more for paper than others, an investigation has revealed.
Using freedom of information requests, MP for South Thanet Craig Mackinlay and the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that Stratford-on-Avon Council paid £4.39 per ream of 80 grams per square meter (GSM) paper in 2016. This compares to Runnymede Borough Council who only paid 75p per ream.
The investigation also found there was little correlation between the amount of paper purchased and the prices being paid.

The first council retrofitting sprinklers since the Grenfell tragedy has warned that councils face an ‘unprecedented funding gap’ in improving tower block fire safety without government help.

Cardiff Council has approved plans for the largest single investment in Cardiff schools, worth £284 million.
The investment is jointly funded by the council and Welsh government as part of the next phase of the 21st Century Schools programme for Cardiff, starting in 2019.
Schemes include new secondary schools, new English-medium and Welsh-medium primary schools, and new special schools.

Bristol Heat Networks is to be expanded to help local businesses and houses access low carbon and sustainable forms of heat and energy.
The network now takes in a large part of the Temple and Redcliffe area and consists of a large underground network of pipes.
The first stage of the network already provides over 700 residents in social housing blocks around the city with low carbon and affordable heat for their homes.

Local authorities are being forced to spend their own resources tackling the effects of Universal Credit and preparing for its roll out.
Freedom of Information requests from the Labour party have revealed that councils are committing scarce funds towards preparing for the impact of Universal Credit above Discretionary Housing Payments provided by the Department for Work and Pensions.

The government has published new guidance warning councils against abusing anti-social behaviour powers after charities claim PSPOs are being used to target people unfairly.

A predicted 300,000 people are ‘falling through the cracks’ of the welfare system and missing out on the financial support they are entitled to, research reveals.