The much anticipated Levelling Up White Paper (LUWP) is expected to publish before Christmas, with all bets on for week 6^th December OR week 13^th December.  However, the PM is in the midst of political firefighting driven by factors that are not yet under control and external events always steer the course and set priorities at no.10. 

UKCRF: Calling all housing partners listed in successful Community Renewal Fund bids. Drop us a line here @CtW. UKCRF bid winners are confirmed. The full list is here and CRF projects will run from now to the extended deadline of the end of June 2022. CRF is described as the forerunner of SPF and we want to build a bank of intelligence and experience from our Communities that Work membership from today.  

£150 billion windfall gives the Chancellor what he needs.

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you find, you get what you need. Rishi Sunak could have hummed this tune on route to deliver the Budget last week.   He can’t have the low taxes he wants, and the PM hasn’t got his high wage economy either, but the OBR handed £150 billion back to forecasts, which brought about a pre-Christmas spending spree from HMT.

What do we want? More Mayors!
When do we want them? Now!

This isn’t a direct quote, more an impression taken from an address by our new leader at DLUHC. It’s quite easy to paraphrase the address, as when Michael Gove was asked in a fringe session at conservative party conference if he wanted to see more mayors, he just said ‘Yes’.

The new Secretary of State at the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was fast off the blocks and on the move in his first few days in the job. He went straight to the site of the largest new freeport, dropped into a biosciences lab, and ended at a towns funded area where homes, transport and jobs were on the agenda.