Spotlight Newsletter

This week's Spotlight is all about delivery pressure meeting system change as the Government's push for home-grown clean energy builds momentum, data centres remain firmly in the policy spotlight and housebuilders react to the Spring Statement

5

March

2026

Author

Laura Kennedy

This week's Spotlight is all about delivery pressure meeting system change as the Government's push for home-grown clean energy builds momentum, data centres remain firmly in the policy spotlight and housebuilders react to the Spring Statement

ENERGY

✒️ Major grid contracts signed to deliver the UK’s biggest electricity transmission project – Eastern Green Link 3 | National Grid

✒️England's largest land manager to help home-grown clean energy | Press release from Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Mary Creagh CBE MP

✒️ Final site progressing for Round 5 as Ocean Winds enters agreement for lease for floating wind farm in the Celtic Sea | Press release from The Crown Estate

🗣️Community Energy : Small Businesses | Department for Energy Security and Net Zero  

📰 NESO awards no contracts to battery storage in Stability Market Round 2 | Solar Power Portal  

📰 SSE wins TfL contract to power London tube with solar | Solar Power Portal  

📰 UK Supreme Court rules Spain must pay €120m renewable energy debt in landmark state immunity case | Business Matter

🗣️Global conflict keeps pushing up UK energy bills – homegrown renewables are our way out | Nigel Pocklington writing for LBC  

INFRASTRUCTURE

✒️ MPs to examine data centres climate impact as Miliband says future demand “inherently uncertain” | Press release from Environmental Audit Committee  

📰 Data centre policy will be in next London Plan, City Hall says | BBC News

📰 Datacentre developers urged to disclose impact on UK net emissions | Energy Live News  

✒️ UK-first trial of AI Grid Technology Successfully Demonstrates the Ability of Data Centres to Adjust Power Needs | Press release from National Grid

📰 Unlocking UK housing & infrastructure with compact, modular wastewater treatment | Water Magazine

📰 AI tool for more efficient rail electrification already making savings on UK network | New Civil Engineer (paywall)

DEVELOPMENT

✒️ Spring Statement a missed opportunity for Britain’s builders, says FMB | Press release from Federation of Master Builders

📰 An uneventful 2026 spring statement for construction | PBC Today

📰 UK house prices rise in February as chancellor avoids ‘negative speculation’ | The Guardian

📰 Most senior council officers in England say building work hit by delays | The Guardian  

📰 London Assembly March 2026: Growth Plan Scrutiny, Housing Delivery Risks and Net Zero Pressures | London Construction Magazine

📰 Architects v Londoners: Mayor urged to tackle disconnect over housing design | Architect’s Journal

📰 Hardest for Welsh landlords to meet green housing targets | Property Wire

📰 Labour warned it could miss housing targets over tax burden | City AM

🗣️ 'Labour is being badly misled on housing' | Chris Hinchcliff MP

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Image credit: Aaron Chown/PA (Reeves’s spring statement? The economy is great, don’t worry about the Middle East | John Crace | The Guardian)

Author

Laura Kennedy

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