England’s regional development agencies have lost 424  staff in total since the general election in May, Public Property UK can reveal.
The bodies, which are due to be abolished by April 2012 and employ around 2,500 staff, have recently finished a first wave of voluntary redundancies and are set to cut …

As property braces itself for the Comprehensive Spending Review, Nick Johnstone considers the repercussions of a “once-in-a-century” moment in government property policy.
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A scruffy 200,000 sq ft office block is about to come on to the market in Edinburgh. Its occupier, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), is cutting costs …

Francis Maude has announced that 192  government quangos are set to be axed, and a further 289 to be reformed.
This morning, Cabinet Office minister Maude published the definitive list of bodies to be scrapped including the Infrastructure Planning Commission and development corporations in the Thames Gateway.
The Homes and Communities Agency …

Stephen Hollowood, executive director and head of public sector at GVA Grimley, looks at which parts of the UK will be hit hardest by next Wednesday’s comprehensive spending review:
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The much-anticipated comprehensive spending review will announce funding cuts across all parts of the public sector, although more so for some …

The government is expected to give the go ahead to up to 26 of the 56 local partnerships that are due to replace regional development agencies.
Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Greater Birmingham are three of the local enterprise partnerships that the government is expected to approve.
These groups will be given powers …

Renaissance Southend has become the latest Urban Regeneration Company to announce that it is set to close.
The URC’s bosses yesterday voted to wind it up, having realised there would be no more funding available from partners in the next financial year.
It was launched to develop plans for the economic growth …

Trade unions voted to support strikes against public sector spending cuts at the Trades Union Congress annual conference in Manchester yesterday.
Unions said they would resist government plans to cut £83bn of public spending over the next four years, which threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public sector. Members …

Local authorities are today looking at contingency plans for schemes after social housing company Connaught went into administration.
The company had fallen into financial difficulties, and yesterday KPMG was appointed as its administrator. Leeds, Norwich and other city councils that have contracts with the FTSE 250 company are now being forced …

Nottinghamshire County Council expects to axe 3,000 staff in the next three years.
The council announced today that new budget constraints would lead to mass redundancies, adding to the £36m cut disclosed in its 2011-12 budget report in February.
It said the necessary savings had almost doubled to £69m, due to reduced …

Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine will head up the panel that selects which regeneration schemes will benefit from the government’s new £1bn Regional Growth Fund.
Today, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced that Heseltine will lead its Approval Panel, which is to consider proposals for funding and recommend …