The city of York has launched ‘New City Beautiful’- a vision document for York drawn up by a team led by urbanist Professor Alan Simpson.
The vision plans to create a car-free city that will compete with international cities of the world.
The report has now been approved by members of the …

Development consultant Interserve has won contracts to extend schools in the Midlands and Yorkshire worth £42m.
The largest is a £23m improvement programme at the Farnley Park High School in Leeds, which is being carried out as part of the Building Schools for the Future Programme. Work has just started and …

Tony Reeves, chief executive of Bradford City Council, explains how today’s Comprehensive Spending Review will affect his city, including job cuts of up to 3,000 and £1bn being taken out of the local economy.
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Bradford City Council has 20,000 employees. We can expect to have 3,000 fewer by the end of …

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 …

City of York Council has appointed Bob Sydes as heritage renaissance officer to its new ‘renaissance’ team.
Sydes will work with lead architect Guy Hanson and council officers to maximise the economic impact of development in the city and develop a co-ordinated approach to long-term planning in York (pictured). His role …

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 …