The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced how its £1.2 billion of road funding will be allocated between councils across England for the 2017 to 2018 financial year.

Newcastle City Council has invited the views of its residents about the city’s principal, countryside and neighbourhood parks and greenspaces.
Over the past seven-years Newcastle has seen its parks’ budget reduced by over 90 per cent, meaning that finding new ways of financing the city’s parks and greenspaces is essential.

Islington Council’s 2017/18 budget proposals include £40 million to build badly-needed new council homes.
The council claims that the authority is facing a housing crisis, with a desperate shortage of affordable homes. Therefore, schemes, like those at Dover Court in Canonbury and King Square in Bunhill ward, will receive an allocated £40 million for new council housing in the borough.

It has been reported that Warrington Borough Council will spend £30 million on buying a 33 per cent stake in a new bank.
Partnering an unnamed ‘major city financier’, Redwood Bank will target lending to small northern firms when it launches in August. The Labour-led council hopes to take a share of the profits, but opposition parties have raised concerns over the ‘risk’ involved in the move.
The authority hopes to generate income through interest payments, and insists the bank's business plan would be ‘monitored closely’ to protects its investment.

Arts Council England is investing £800,000 to put art and culture at the heart of plans to boost the visitor and tourist economy in the Midlands.
Supporting four projects in Coventry, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Stoke, the investment comes from the Arts Council’s Cultural Destinations programme which gives arts and cultural organisations the resources they need to increase their reach and impact by working with the tourism sector.

The Hendry Review, reporting on the strategic role of tidal lagoons in the UK, has backed plans for the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon.
The independent report into the viability of the renewable energy technology has recommended that the UK builds a world first lagoon to capture energy from the sea in Swansea Bay, a decision that has been widely welcomed across the UK.

Local authority leadership is key in supporting the delivery of sustainable new homes and communities, a new green paper says.

Following a freedom of information request by the Welsh Conservatives, councils in Wales have been urged to cut their spend on ‘propaganda’.
The figures showed that more than £1.6 million had been spent over the last three years by Welsh councils on ‘junk mail’, such as bulletins and newsletters.
Shadow Local Government Secretary Janet Finch-Saunders has said that councils should instead ‘focus their resources on providing regular bin collections and on maintaining the standard of local roads’.

A nationwide competition to find the next UK City of Culture has been launched by Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock.
The competition helps cities develop a broader high quality arts and culture sector, as well as attract increased business investment and boost tourism.
Administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the competition followed Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture 2008. The first holder of the award was Derry~Londonderry in 2013, while Hull took over the title at the start of 2017.

The government has announced new measures to cut the noise allowed from night flights at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
With the current night flight restrictions at the three airports expiring in October 2017, the new public consultation will encourage the use of quieter aircraft to limit the number of people significantly affected by aircraft noise at night. The new rules will last for the next five years up to 2022.