Housing minister Esther McVey this week announced £6m to help garden towns and villages progress plans to deliver up to 200,000 new homes.

An additional £1.9m will be given to councils to support new neighbourhood plans.

McVey said: “Communities have the local insight to decide what new homes should look like and the kind of infrastructure they need in their area.

“This is what neighbourhood planning is all about, so I am pleased this funding will ensure that the right homes are built in the right places.”

The LGA is calling on permitted development rules to be scrapped and local communities to be allowed to have a vital say on new developments in their area.

Latest figures show that since 2015, there were 54,162 new homes converted from offices under permitted development in England..

Last year (2018/19), more than half (51%) of all new homes in Harlow were office conversions, with 48% in Norwich and 43% in Three Rivers, according to the LGA’s statistics.

David Renard, the LGA’s housing spokesman, said: “By scrapping permitted development rules, the Government can give councils and local communities the ability to shape the area they live in and ensure homes are built to high standards with the necessary infrastructure in place.”

Documents filed with Companies House show that revenue at the firm declined from £8.7m to £7.8m, with the overall losses rising from £300,000 the previous year.

The firm is jointly run by Cambridgeshire County Council, Northamptonshire County Council and Bedfordshire Borough Council.

Debbie Carter-Hughes, executive director of LGSS Law said: “During the year the company implemented new and more rigorous procedures to manage revenue and costs with a view to achieving profitability going forward.”

During the year, Cambridgeshire County Council provided the firm with an overdraft facility of £499,000, of which £375,000 has been drawn down, the accounts showed.

Leaders of England’s county authorities are calling for a fair share of the government’s new £2bn pothole fund and a long-term commitment to ‘level up’ investment.

The CCN figures show that the 36 shire counties were able to spend £20,885 per mile on road repairs, pothole filling, and constructing new junctions and networks last year, compared to £62,350 per mile in London.

David Williams, CCN chairman, and leader of Hertfordshire County Council, said the analysis “shows that county motorists are clearly the poor relation to drivers in London and other cities areas when it comes to how much gets spent on fixing potholes and improving the local road network, with drivers across the country facing a pothole lottery, even within regions”.

Chappell was previously Brunel’s chief compliance and risk officer and has been Acting CEO since September 2019.

Denise Le Gal, chair of the Brunel board, said: “We had very specific qualities we were seeking for the successful candidate.

“As a highly experienced professional with a strong risk management background, it was clear that Laura had the best fit we were seeking.”

The fund will sit within Border to Coast’s fixed income fund range and will offer its partner funds access to higher-yielding areas of public fixed income markets, the pool said.

The MAC strategy will target cash plus 3% to 4% pa through a diversified portfolio of high yield bonds, leveraged loans, emerging market debt, securitised credit and other fixed income assets.

According to a statement from the pool, the fund will be constructed with a core-satellite structure consisting of a core MAC manager, PIMCO, and a series of complementary single asset class specialists.

Daniel Booth, chief investment officer at Border to Coast, said “Establishing a multi-asset credit fund is an essential part of Border to Coast’s objective in delivering long-term risk-adjusted investment returns for our twelve partner funds.”

Planning permission for the solar farm at a former landfill site in the borough was granted in October.

A business case presented to councillors said the project will generate a rate of return of 4.12%, equivalent to £835,000 over 35 years.

The vehicle is set to undertake development of new housing in areas earmarked for regeneration around Old Trafford.

The initial development to be undertaken by the new partnership will be Tamworth Phase II, a site is located off Bold Street, Old Trafford.