Blackburn Council is set to appeal a government decision which approved developer Lend Lease’s £700m retail development in Tithebarn, Preston last year.
Despite the Secretary of State’s decision to give the development, which is anchored by John Lewis and Marks and Spencer, planning permission in November 2010, Councillor Dave Harling, executive …

Wirral Waters, Peel’s £4.5bn regeneration scheme in Merseyside, has been granted final planning approval by the secretary of state.
The 17m sq ft plan for the East Float site on the derelict docks in Birkenhead was approved by Wirral council’s planning committee last month. But it needed final approval by the …

The “Whitehall of the North” scheme planned in Manchester is under review following spending cuts set out in the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review last month.
Under the scheme, around 5,000 civil servants were expected to relocate from London to the site of the derelict station Mayfield, near Manchester Piccadilly station. However, …

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 …

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has instructed Colliers International to conduct a retail and leisure study of Rotherham following a competitive tender.
The study will provide an evidence base for the Rotherham local development framework, which will cover the period up to 2027, and inform any retail policies and proposals that come …

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 …

North West Development Agency chief executive Steven Broomhead is to step down from his post.
Broomhead, who was appointed in 2003 to the regional development agency (RDA), said today that he would take early retirement. He is the latest in a string of high profile staff members to leave RDAs, which …

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 …