Government plans to curtail the influence of local politics on major planning decisions, and instead to professionalise the assessment process in most cases, are both welcome and overdue.
Who are local authority planning committees most afraid of? It ain’t Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government secretary of state Steve Reed, that’s for sure.
There will be much to keep an eye on as 2026 unfolds, but few initiatives are likely to be as significant or as problem-prone as the government’s new towns programme.
The Budget confirmed that many firms across the country will face higher business rates from next April, with the overall take due to rise 10.2% from £33.6bn in 2025-26 to £37.1bn in 2026-27.
To a chorus of jeers and cheers, chancellor Rachel Reeves concluded her Budget speech on Wednesday by saying she’d kept “every single one of our manifesto commitments”.
At the start of September, RX France appointed Nicolas Boffi as the new director of Mipim. Seven weeks into the role, Boffi tells Property Week his vision for the long-running and hugely successful tradeshow.
