The winners of £6.6 billion worth of major construction contracts for HS2 Phase One have been announced.
Carillion, Contain and Balfour Beatty are among the UK firms who will build tunnels, bridges and embankments on the first stretch of the new rail line.
The contract will support 16,000 jobs, and the construction of the full HS2 route to the north-west and Yorkshire will create up to 25,000 jobs and 2,000 apprenticeships. Another 3,000 people will operate HS2 and it is predicted that growth around new HS2 stations will create another 100,000 jobs.

Five towns and cities have been shortlisted to host UK City of Culture 2021, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism.
John Glen, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, has announced that Coventry, Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Swansea have been shortlisted to host UK City of Culture 2021.
Of the eleven towns and cities that registered bids for UK City of Culture 2021, five have been shortlisted for the award.

Leading safety bodies are to meet ministers for talks on the UK’s building and fire regulations following the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Schemes across the country have been allocated £15 million worth of funding in order to reduce flood risk.

Lambeth Council will receive a £55 million grant from City Hall to help tackle the current housing crisis.
Lambeth Council will receive £54,720,000 to provide 912 affordable houses, while the borough will collectively spend a total of £74,640,000 funding 1,448 homes.
An estimated £1.7 billion will be invested in 49,398 affordable homes being built, with new homes in all 32 boroughs and the City of London delivered by 44 housing providers.

The government should create a fund which could deliver 40,000 new homes annually and boost public finances by £3.4 billion, a new report argues.
ResPublica’s report, A National Housing Fund to Build Homes We Need, offers a radical way to tackle the current housing crisis and makes suggestions for the government to get the housing market working for many.

Local government is ‘not fit for the future’ as a result of outdated gender attitudes, a new report says.
The final report of the Fawcett Society’s Local Government Commission concludes that local government needs women to progress in the future, while revealing that a mere four per cent of local councils in England have a formal maternity, paternity or parental leave policy in place for councillors. Some have informal arrangements, but 75 per cent who responded to the report said they had nothing on offer for women councillors who get pregnant.