Westminster City Council has adopted a retrofit-first planning policy in its City Plan Partial Review, obliging developers to evidence options for retaining and adapting existing structures before applying for demolition and rebuild. The plan also tightens affordable housing requirements, shifting the tenure mix in new schemes from 40% to 70% social rent and from 60% to 30% intermediate, and capturing sites with fewer than 10 units through financial contributions. Four large mixed-use strategic sites are flagged for redevelopment: St Mary’s Hospital, Westbourne Park Bus Garage, land adjacent to Royal Oak, and Grosvenor Sidings.

Australia’s Federal Government has named lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earths as the first commodities eligible for its $1.2 billion Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, ahead of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ mid-year budget update. The reserve will allow Canberra to buy and hold physical stockpiles to support downstream processing projects and stabilise supply chains, with details expected to influence financing for operations such as Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold–antimony project in NSW. For miners, the move signals potential price support and new offtake-style backing for qualifying critical mineral projects.

Australia will create a A$1.2 billion critical minerals reserve by year-end 2026, initially stockpiling domestically produced rare earths, antimony and gallium to counter China’s pricing power and support defence and clean-tech supply chains. The scheme will secure and on-sell offtake rights rather than physical tonnes, with Export Finance Australia and the industry department gaining expanded powers to structure transactions and support local miners. An associated US–Australia agreement includes an US$8.5 billion project pipeline, and G7 finance ministers are expected to debate minimum pricing for some critical minerals.