Government

New Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves has outlined a raft of planning reforms to “get Britain building again”. Reeves used her first speech in her new post to announce a reversal of many Conservative policies including consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) , restoring mandatory housing targets and…

Labour has appointed its former housing and planning minister as a junior minister in the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The news comes after Angela Rayner was confirmed on Friday (5 June) as housing secretary, where she will oversee Labour’s manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million homes over…

The construction industry has reacted optimistically but cautiously after the Labour Party swept to a landslide victory in the general election. As Keir Starmer takes power after a period of rising prices, rising interest rates and geopolicital instability, more than half (52 per cent) of construction professionals polled by data…

For the first time in 14 years a Labour Party prime minister will preside in 10 Downing Street. Keir Starmer forming a new government today (5 July) after winning a majority of 172 seats. The party is expected to boost worker rights and union powers as part of forthcoming labour…

It’s official: after 14 years, the Conservative Party’s time in government has ended. Five prime ministers, 16 construction ministers and 16 housing ministers on, what will we remember as the party’s biggest legacy for construction? Austerity The coalition government led by David Cameron (pictured on the right) first took the…

Mace senior executive Mike Reader has been elected to parliament as a Labour MP. Reader won his Northampton South constituency by 4,071 votes over the incumbent Conservative candidate, in a swing of 7.6 per cent. In his victory speech, he said: “We are realistic about the scale of the challenges…

A manager at the National Federation of Builders (NFB) is vying to become a member of parliament in today’s general election. Sean Houlston, who manages membership services at the trade body, is standing for the Conservative Party in the newly-created constituency of Widnes and Halewood in Cheshire. Houlston describes himself…

A quarter of all the cladding remediation projects in England have been completed, seven years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Of the 4,374 buildings identified in England with dangerous cladding by the end of May 2024, 1,088 have been remediated to completion, according to government statistics published yesterday. Buildings in…

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has called for cuts to VAT for retrofit work, an RAAC remediation fund and a ban on new nuclear power stations in its election manifesto. The pro-independence party is not standing in seats outside Scotland and so cannot win enough MPs to form the next…

Construction was the worst hit industry for insolvencies in the year to April 2024, the Insolvency Service has revealed. Some 4,401 construction companies in England and Wales registered as insolvent in the period – 18 per cent of all businesses to do so. The figure is almost 500 more than…