Spotlight: MPs and peers form APPG on data centres, UK signs energy security pact with EU countries to help deliver 100GW of offshore wind capacity and Government releases further plans for new towns

ENERGY

️✒️ UK and Europe sign historic pact to drive clean energy future | Press release from Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP

️📰 UK’s clean energy pact with European neighbours will boost energy security and reduce bills | Press release from RenewableUK

📰 UK joins European offshore windfarm plan to create world’s largest ‘clean energy reservoir’ | The Guardian

📰 Expensive gas still biggest driver of high UK electricity bills, says UKERC | Carbon Brief

️✒️ Review of Energy Policy 2025 | Research paper by Peter Taylor, Richard Carmichael et al for UKERC

📰 UK Should Invest in Energy Over Rail For Growth Boost, BCG Says | Bloomberg (paywall)

📰 ‘Getting gateway 2 approval now much closer to stated 12 weeks,’ Building Safety Regulator boss says | Building (paywall)

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INFRASTRUCTURE

✒️ More than 3,400 jobs and targeted support for local communities to help tackle the cost of living as Lanarkshire named latest AI Growth Zone | Press release from Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, The Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP, Kirsty McNeill MP and The Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP

📰 MPs launch data centres group to balance growth & net zero | IT Brief UK

📰 UK must become the next ‘Green AI superpower’ says UKAI | Water Magazine

📰 Waste heat from data centres could heat over 3.5 million UK homes | Envirotec Magazine

📰 SSEN awards £1.75bn contracts to supply and install cables for pair of major subsea links | New Civil Engineer (paywall)

📰 UK construction activity saw sharp fall in 2025 with civils particularly turbulent | New Civil Engineer (paywall)

📰 Water companies press for faster abolition of regulator | Financial Times (paywall)

🗣 Skanska UK president and CEO on bringing certainty to public sector infrastructure delivery | Katy Dowding, CEO of Skanska UK (paywall)

🗣 What does the Warm Homes Plan mean for the UK's energy and infrastructure sector? | Travers Smith

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DEVELOPMENT

✒️English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill - committee stage | House of Lords

✒️Housing Secretary rallies sector at housing and infrastructure roundtables | MHCLG in the Media blog

✒️ Government launches consultation on banning leaseholds for flats | MHCLG

📰 Latest chapter in planning policy reform points to a fundamental restructure | PBC Today

📰 Government unveils new social and affordable housing package | The Intermediary

📰 £15bn Warm Homes Plan maps out mass retrofit drive | Construction Enquirer News

📰 Homes England submits 5,500-home planning applications for shortlisted new town site | Planning Resource (paywall)

📰 Thamesmead Waterfront new town 'no brainer', says politician | BBC News

📰 Former Homes England boss to lead new combined authority | Inside Housing (paywall)