Amendments to the Housing (Scotland) Bill will mean that there will be greater support to prevent people experiencing the trauma of homelessness.
The Bill currently places a stronger importance on preventing homelessness through ‘ask and act’ duties on social landlords and relevant bodies, such as Health Boards, Police Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service, to inquire about a person’s housing situation early on and act to avoid them becoming homeless as soon as possible.

Hillingdon Council has implemented an AI-powered customer service platform, designed to transform how residents interact with council services.
ICS.AI’s SMART: Customer Service Copilot will handle resident enquiries, provide self-service options, and free up council staff to focus on complex issues.

North Ayrshire Council has announced it has switched 36 refuse collection vehicles from diesel to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO).
This initiative is expected to save roughly 2,529 tonnes of carbon emissions over the next 12 months. According to the Council, this equates to more than a fifth of the overall fleet-produced emissions and approximately one million litres of HVO will be consumed over the course of the year.

Under the Warm Homes Plan, up to 170,000 homes in England are to benefit from energy-efficiency upgrades.
£1.8 billion in government support has been allocated to local authorities and social housing providers, to support them to deliver warmer, more energy efficient homes in local communities across England.
The funding will be targeted at low-income households and tenants living in social housing, with thousands of families set to receive energy performance and clean heating upgrades in the form of insulation, solar panels and heat pumps.

The coalition behind the School Food Review has released a new report which lays out evidence demonstrating the multiple benefits of expanding free school meals, starting with all children from families in receipt of Universal Credit or equivalent benefits, as a first step to universal free school meals.
These include not only better health and wellbeing, but improved attendance, better pupil outcomes and wider social benefits including reduced inequalities.

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found that government has been slow to address gaps in charge point provision and calls for delays in the EV charging roll-out to be addressed.
It also raises concerns around regional divides and inequalities for different groups of drivers.
The report finds that approximately a third of the 114 motorway service areas had yet to meet DfT’s original ambitions for each to have six ultra-rapid charge points by the end of 2023.

Dozens of clean energy projects, including wind and solar power, will skip the queue for grid connections and be prioritised as part of the government’s pledge to drive clean power by 2030.
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, to be introduced in Parliament this week, will prioritise transmission infrastructure to unlock growth through £200 billion investment and protect households from turbulent fossil fuel markets.

People living new pylons nationwide will be able to get reduced energy bills under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Household within 500 metres of new or upgraded electricity transmission infrastructure will get electricity discounts of up to £2,500 over ten years. This will allow rural communities to receive hundreds of pounds in their pockets for hosting vital infrastructure.

A new report by the County Councils Network (CCN) has backed up government proposals for the creation of new unitary councils in England, although new authorities must cover areas of ‘at least’ half a million people to save billions and free up investment.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, will attend MIPIM, the world’s most influential property event, in France to try and seek investment to help build thousands of more affordable homes in the capital.