A new report has suggested that UK’s cities are lagging behind their European counterparts in terms of skills, productivity and innovation.

Council leaders have praised a judicial review which ruled that councils should remain exempt from VAT on commercial waste collections.

Former Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said that the NHS should get a ‘Brexit bonus’ of £5 billion a year.
As part of his address at the NHS Providers annual lecture, Lansley claimed that the public had a right to expect extra funding, which should be in place by 2019-2020, due to Leave campaigners saying that the £350 million a week the UK paid into the bloc's budget would be spent on the NHS instead as part of their EU referendum campaign.

Malcolm Harrison has been appointed chief executive of Crown Commercial Service (CCS), effective from 1 November 2016.
Harrison, who has been operating as interim CEO since Sally Collier left in May 2016, is formerly chief procurement officer at Interbrew/InBev and Nestlé SA.
The CCS aims to deliver commercial benefits to government departments and the wider public sector and delivering ministerial policy objectives, including increasing the proportion of government spend going to SMEs to one third by 2020.

More small and medium-sized businesses have negative attitudes about future business plans than positive for the first time in four years.
In the first data gathered since the UK’s decision to leave the EU, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has found that UK small business confidence has dipped into negative territory for the first time since 2012.

Southwark Council has said it is seeking a judicial review over the government’s decision to block a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on Aylesbury Estate, as part of the council’s wider plans for a regeneration scheme.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called for more control over taxes and public services, akin to those given to the mayors of Chicago and New York.
Khan highlighted that he and the London boroughs combined only have control over seven per cent of the funds raised by residents and businesses, while his New York and Chicago counterparts have control of over 50 per cent of the cash.
Khan also outlined that the mayors of New York and Chicago administer a number of additional taxes such as stock transfers property, alcohol and tobacco.

The UK government has invited Derry City & Strabane Council to put forward proposals to sustain the Londonderry to London air route, following the recent announcement by Ryanair that it would stop serving the route and the end of March 2017.

Ofsted has rated children services run by Wirral Council as ‘inadequate’, after an investigation found ‘widespread and serious failures’.

Citizens Advice Cymru has raised concerns over councils using bailiffs to quicken the collection of council debts.
It warned that councils were using the measure as a quick fix instead of a last resort.
The charity claimed that council tax debt was one of the biggest debt problems in Wales and called for a fairer approach to debt recovery.
Figures show that in 2015-16, almost 6,000 people asked for help with 16,000 issues regarding council tax, up seven per cent on 2014-15.