Commercial property improvements that increase rateable value will sit outside the government's new two-year business rates freeze for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England. The Budget measure caps eligible bill increases by CPI inflation in 2027/28 and 2028/29, but updated guidance from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says the cap wil…
Great British Energy – Nuclear is due to report to ministers later in 2026 on UK sites that could host another large-scale nuclear power station beyond Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. The latest position was set out by Energy Minister Michael Shanks in a written parliamentary answer on 16 October . GBE-N's current remit is to identify suitable sites and advise ministers; the government ha…
Binance says a security incident with an estimated impact of about $6.3bn may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, giving an attacker access to a service container from which unauthorised withdrawal transactions could be submitted. The cryptocurrency exchange said on 30 October that it had found no evidence of wallet private keys being leaked. About $3bn of affected a…
Every UK respondent to Turner & Townsend's 2026 construction market survey reported a shortage of qualified mechanical, electrical and plumbing workers, with fast-growing sectors including data centres increasing demand for specialist trades faster than the workforce is adapting. The pressure is becoming visible across the wider data-centre market. Turner & Townsend's separate…
An ageing block of flats can be in good structural condition today and still have no defensible long-term future in its current form. A draft 2026 structural appraisal reviewed by London Construction Magazine makes the distinction unusually clearly. Engineers described the buildings they inspected as being in a generally good state of repair, with no significant signs of structural distress o…
