Local authority round-up 17 October 2025
17th October, 2025
Our Local Authority round up provides brief summaries of topical information on a weekly basis, to keep you aware of the changes and updates relevant to you.
Health & Social care
New registration service opens for infected blood compensation claims
From 9th October 2025, anyone who intends to make a claim for compensation from the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme can now register with IBAC. This also includes making a claim on behalf of an infected person who has died without receiving compensation. Since IBAC was formed last year, it has now paid more than £1.5 billion in compensation. The incentive behind opening registration allows an understanding of who intends to claim and their preferred contact method. Obtaining this information means IBAC can contact people when they are able to start making a claim, and as details are known, cases can be prioritised accordingly.
This new system for claiming compensation has been developed by working alongside representatives from the infected blood community to understand what they need, while making it as easy to use as possible. Following the launch of this new online registration, IBAC expects to begin to open to some people in all groups by the end of this year.
For more information, please click here.
£50 million boost for groundbreaking mental health research
£50 million in government funding has been distributed into mental health funding to help deliver more effective treatments. Currently 1 in 4 people in England suffer with their mental health and its impact costs the UK economy £300 billion a year. The £50 million in funding will be used for an array of things; for example, it will help set up a cohort of 20,000 volunteers whose health data can be securely used for mental health research, providing a better, data driven understanding of how our biology links to mental health. Additionally, it will launch a new Lived Experience Industry Partnership to ensure people who have experienced mental health problems are at the heart of how research is conducted by the industry, therefore, focusing on tackling problems head on which can meaningfully change lives.
For more information, please click here.
Planning & Housing
Pro-growth changes made to government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill to get Britain building faster
A pro-growth package announced by the government this week vows to support the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to help drive growth and slash planning delays currently impacting the UK economy. The growth plan denotes a push towards new homes, more clean energy and greater water security to be well within reach for hundreds of thousands of working people and families across Britain, reinforcing the aim to dismantle any barriers in getting Britain building. If voted through, Ministers will acquire new powers to prevent applications being rejected by local councils. It is hoped that if passed, each of these pro-growth changes will accelerate the government’s Plan for Change involving building 1.5 million homes, achieving clean power by 2030 and raising living standards.
For more information, please click here.
Upcoming events:
Seminar: Contract Law Update
We are thrilled to announce that Professor Ewan McKendrick KC, will be joining us once again for our insightful overviews of the latest in contract law.
For this series we are collaborating with BCL Legal, the UK’s number one legal recruiter. We will be hosting a session in Manchester and Leeds on 22nd October and 25th November respectively.
Professor of Anglo-American Private law at the University of Leiden and Emeritus Professor of English Private Law at the University of Oxford, Professor McKendrick will share with us the latest insights and case law on the following topics.
- Recent cases on the interpretation of contracts, in particular the interpretation of exclusion and limitation clauses
- Implied terms and the termination of contracts
- Agreed damages and penalty clauses
- The application of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
- The drafting of conditions precedent, material adverse change clauses and MOUs
- Incorporation of contracts terms, variation and rescission of contracts
- A summary of other leading developments
These updates are a must attend for all in-house legal teams. We have a session in Manchester from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm on 22nd October, and a session in Leeds from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm on 25th November.
If you’d like to attend our Manchester seminar, please click here. If you’d like to attend the following session in Leeds, please click here.
Webinar: Mayoral Development Corporations – Catalysts for growth and regeneration
Everyone involved in delivering regeneration projects needs to understand Mayoral Development Corporations because they are increasingly being favoured as a route to deliver ambitious schemes.
Between 2012 and 2025 six were created – but now there are plans for the same number to be established in the next two years.
In this webinar we will explore what MDCs can do, as well as speaking to people involved in their day to day running to learn lessons about what makes them effective at delivering regeneration outcomes.
You will be able to ask your own questions either in advance via the registration form, or you can use the Q&A feature in Zoom on the day.
Register here and join us on Tuesday 4 November at 10am.
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
This page may contain links that direct you to third party websites. We have no control over and are not responsible for the content, use by you or availability of those third party websites, for any products or services you buy through those sites or for the treatment of any personal information you provide to the third party.
