Theresa May is prepared to change policy on city regions needing directly-elected mayors in order to be granted devolution deals, it has been reported.

52 per cent of small firms have been stung by unfair contract terms with suppliers, costing nearly £4 billion in the last three years.

Of those surveyed about the planned West of England devolution deal, only 55 per cent agreed that the plans would benefit the region.
The consultation, which received 2,011 responses, confirmed just 55 per cent of participants said that West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) would be the best way forward.
34 per cent of those surveyed did not agree with this model, while nine per cent said they did not know and two per cent did not answer.

The SLGP is threatening to take the Scottish government to court if ministers continue to freeze them out of funding talks.

Eden Flood Volunteers, a volunteer group set up in Cumbria during Storm Desmond, is on the cusp of going global.
The work done by the group to support communities affected by December’s floods has gained local, national and international attention.
David Wilson, who runs networking business Avradel Ltd, became a trustee to the group, and is using his links to showcase how the volunteer’s model could be rolled out in places like the Philippines, Pakistan, India and Uganda, which have regular flood problems.

A new report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has stated that the planned more to the national living wage should be abandoned.
The report, ‘And how much do you earn?’, based this belief on ‘scant evidence’ that the national living wage is an effective tool to alleviate poverty.
The IEA has also argued for the national minimum wage to be simplified and for the scrapping of the planned publication of ‘crude’ league tables on gender pay gaps.

Theresa May has promised to pursue George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse plans, despite the former Chancellor not being in her cabinet office.
Writing in the Yorkshire Post, the Prime Minister promised to ‘help the great cities and towns of the north pool their strengths and take on the world’, also vowing to make the Midlands an ‘engine for growth’ in an article on the Birmingham Mail.

Forest Heath District Council has announced it has purchased one of the largest council owned solar farms in the UK, in a move that is expected to bring in an annual income of up to £700,000.

The Communities and Local Government Committee has said that local authorities should ensure whistleblowers are taken seriously, to prevent incidents such as those at Tower Hamlets and Rotherham, from repeating themselves.