The Government has set out plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail, which includes  new rail route between Liverpool and Manchester, running via Manchester Airport and Warrington and improved connections across the Pennines between Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield.
Phase 1 will see upgrades across routes between Leeds, Bradford, York and Sheffield.
The second phase of NPR will include 3 new stations at Manchester Airport, Manchester Piccadilly and Warrington Bank Quay Low Level along the route.

The Scottish Government its budget for 2026-7 with £22.5 billion for social care and £15.7 billion for local government.
The new budget includes a cost-of-living package, with funding for families to trial a programme of activities in a range of primary schools between 3-6pm; free children's sporting activities over the summer and a breakfast club for every primary school by August 2027.

Applications are now open for the first UK Town of Culture competition.
Applications will be open until 31 March.
The competition will be open to small, medium and large towns.
An expert panel will be led by Sir Phil Redmond judging towns on the way they’ll tell their unique story, how they’ll bring everyone in a community together, and how towns will deliver on their vision.
A shortlist will be drawn up with the strongest bids with each town on the shortlist receiving £60,000 to help deliver their full bids for the competition.

Homes England has joined forces with HSBC and NatWest to provide Allison Homes with a £165 million finance facility to support its continued expansion across the East of England, the Midlands and Southwest.
The money will help the company to accelerate land acquisition and development and increase the supply of affordable, high-quality homes across its regions.
Financing will be provided by the Home Building Fund, which is designed to support SME housebuilders to overcome funding barriers in order to build homes more quickly.

The search for delivery partners for a new national forest in the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor has begun.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has opened an Expression of Interest process.
Interested parties will need to demonstrate they have the capacity, experience, and knowledge to deliver the outcomes required, as well as expertise in large-scale woodland creation, community engagement, and cross-sector partnerships.

The government has published new data showing how well local highway authorities (LHA) are tackling potholes.
The new traffic light rating system grades 154 LHAs as red, amber or green based on current road condition and how effectively they are spending the £7.3 billion funding to fix potholes and invest in long term measures to maintain roads.
The rating are based on the condition of local roads; how much LHAs are spending on road repairs; and whether they are following best practice in maintaining highways.

New duties have been introduced which will legally require water companies to produce pollution reduction plans for the first time.
Pollution Incident Reduction Plans (PIRPs) were previously voluntary, however they are now mandatory as part of the Water (Special Measures) Act.
PIRPs must also be made public and the first batch is due in April.
Failure to publish PIRPs will be a criminal offence for companies and their chief executives.

Local leaders will get new powers to to introduce pavement parking restrictions across their area. This will help keep pavements clear and accessible.
Blocked pavements can be a problem for pushchairs, wheelchair users, blind and partially sighted people and older people.