Western governments are adopting a “China-light” industrial strategy, pouring tens to hundreds of billions into defence, semiconductors and critical minerals via tools such as the US Defense Production Act, CHIPS and Science Act ($53 billion), and the EU’s €43 billion European Chips Act and Critical Raw Materials Act. China’s integrated model still dominates midstream capacity, refining 68% of global nickel, 73% of cobalt, 95% of manganese, all spherical graphite for battery anodes, and over 90% of rare earth processing and magnet production. For mining and materials players, the key shift is policy focus from new mines to midstream conversion capacity, long-term offtake-style defence contracts, and allied coordination of minerals and materials flows.

A 34-year-old Manchester plumber, Hannah Spencer, has won the Gorton and Denton by-election for the Green Party with 14,980 votes, taking 40.7% of the vote and a 27.5% swing. Reform polled 10,578 votes and Labour, which previously held the seat, dropped to third with 9,364 votes. Spencer, believed to be the first qualified plumber in the House of Commons and newly trained as a plasterer via a St Gobain intensive course, has pledged to champion tradespeople in parliament.

A new “energy infrastructure coordination levy” has been proposed in the House of Commons by a Suffolk MP to compel developers of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) to plan grid, cable and substation works jointly rather than as isolated schemes. The move responds to Suffolk communities facing overlapping onshore works from multiple offshore wind connections and transmission upgrades, with repeated trenching, haul road construction and temporary land take along similar corridors. For civil and geotechnical teams, the levy could drive shared route corridors, consolidated ground investigations and integrated construction phasing across competing NSIPs.