Housing minister Grant Shapps has announced a £30 million fund to help people who want to build their own home and has pledged to double the size of the self-build housing industry in Britain. Shapps has gone to the Netherlands with Channel 4’s Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, who has just been appointed by the National Self Build Association as a champion for the industry.
The elected mayoral model for cities is not off the table, local government minister Greg Clark has insisted – despite it being rejected by nine out of the 10 cities voting on it last week. Speaking to LGC in the wake of last weeks mayoral referendums, Mr Clark insisted that with Leicester, Liverpool and Salford city councils now run by mayors, and with Bristol set to join them in November, there was now a sufficient core of cities with elected mayors and more would likely follow.
Only Bristol has backed the governments directly elected mayors proposal with key cities including Birmingham rejecting the idea. Of the 10 core cities holding a referendum forced by the Localism Act, nine rejected the plans with low turnouts across the country.
Labour Party candidates have won mayoral elections in both Liverpool and Salford. In Liverpool, Joe Anderson won with 58,458 votes, beating second-place Liam Fogarty, an independent candidate who gained 8,292 votes. The Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Kemp came third with 6,238 votes. The turnout in the election was 30.8%.
After the elections, government in the big cities will undergo major change, while other areas look on with interest says Steven Howell.
The prime minister David Cameron once famously entreated the British public to ‘hug a hoodie’.
Now employment minister, Chris Grayling, has suggested that hoodies should be offered not just love but jobs as well, urging employers to look beyond…
In the first of a series on funding regeneration, the CEO of Localis says local leadership is the key to successful renewal.
Westminster City Council has given residents the go-ahead to hold a referendum on setting up Londons first parish council.
More than 2,000 residents of Queens Park in north-west London signed a petition requesting the establishment of a community council in the area and the council has held a community governance review to examine the proposal.
A consultation on whether a tax efficient vehicle for property investment – widely used in the commercial property market – could be used to encourage more investment in the social housing sector has been published by the government.
A new discounted rate on loans from the government is set to be introduced early next year, according to officials.