Rough is a gas field in the North Sea used to store gas in the summer and deliver it in winter when the gas is needed to help meet high demand.

In June, Centrica plc (Centrica) announced that it intended to close the gas storage facility due to the physical deterioration of the facility which has come to the end of its design life. The closure can only happen if current undertakings required by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have been removed. This led to Centrica and Centrica Storage Ltd (CSL) – the operator of Rough – requesting a review of its undertakings.

The undertakings, put in place in 2003 and most recently amended by the CMA in 2016, include a requirement to keep CSL, legally, financially and physically separate from its parent company Centrica, and to prevent CSL from discriminating in favour of Centrica or other users of Rough.

They also include an obligation for CSL to sell a specific amount of capacity before the start of each storage year, limiting the amount which can be supplied to Centrica and enabling Ofgem to vary the amount of capacity Centrica is required to offer for sale.

The CMA panel members who will act as decision-makers in the review are: Martin Cave, Jayne Scott, Jon Stern and Anne Fletcher. The CMA anticipates that the review will be completed before the end of 2017.

Further details, including Centrica and CSL’s request to remove the undertakings can be found on the case page. An administrative timetable will be published shortly.

A partnership project has breathed new life into a local north east park.

The Wear Rivers Trust and Environment Agency have worked together to make improvements to Memorial Park near Stanley.

In the 1950s, Stanley Burn, which flows through South Moor Memorial Park, was diverted into a culvert to make way for a communal paddling pool, which was used for around 15 years and then buried and forgotten.

This new project has now removed the paddling pool and returned the river to its natural channel, creating new high quality habitat for fish and invertebrates while also slowing the flow of the watercourse and increasing flood storage.

Nearby residents of Stanley are also enjoying improved year-round access with a new 300m footpath and two new footbridges. And work is planned in early 2018 to further improve the instream habitat for fish and to naturalise the bankside habitat.

Steve Hudson of Wear Rivers Trust said:

It’s great to be involved in a project which offers so many benefits to the local community. By working alongside multiple partners through the Greening the Twizell Partnership, we have managed to improve instream habitat, reduce flood risk and provide new all ability access routes for everyone to enjoy this previously difficult to reach woodland park area.

The project has cost more than £90,000 and is made up of funding from the Environment Agency, Stanley Town Council, Durham County Council and Stanley Area Action Partnership. It’s one part of a four-part project in the area which has also included wetland and pond creation and natural flood management measures.

Karen Fisher, Biodiversity Technical Officer with the Environment Agency in the North East, added:

The project has been delivered with Wear Rivers Trust and is an excellent example of partnership working that has delivered multiple benefits.

This includes habitat creation, lengthening the watercourse, new bridges and a seating area, creating a green area for the local community to use.

Businesses can apply for up to £25 million to explore, develop and test applications and services for the next generation of digital infrastructure.

Have you ever wondered how many properties were purchased using cash alone? From today, the UK House Price Index (UK HPI) will tell you the answer. You can now access the number of:

• cash sales transactions
• mortgage sales transactions
• registered new build and resold properties

We have found that while cash sales account for between 30% and 40% of all transactions at Great Britain level, there are some variations at regional level. London has the lowest proportion of cash sales (around 25%), while the South West has the highest (around 40%).

All the new sales volume data are available at national, regional, county, local authority and London borough levels, enabling easy comparison with existing data. You can explore the data further through our downloadable data tables or via our Linked Data API.

The introduction of volume information improves the transparency of the number of new build properties registered across the UK. It also provides greater clarity on purchasing trends, helping users to understand the extent of household credit. To understand more about how this data is derived, refer to Calculating the UK HPI (section 4).

We will continue to make enhancements to the data based on user feedback. This includes making all data available in the Search the UK House Price Index app later this year.

You can help us shape one of the nation’s most important indicators. Through our LinkedIn UK HPI group we are working with users, stakeholders and our partners to enhance the information and data supplied to ensure the index continues to offer maximum public value.

If you would like to share your feedback on the UK HPI, you can register your interest to join the UK HPI group or contact us for more information.

The UK Property Transaction statistics showed that the number of seasonally adjusted transactions on UK properties with a value of £40,000 or greater has increased by 6.6% between August 2016 and August 2017. However, between July 2017 and August 2017, the number of seasonally adjusted property transactions decreased by 0.5%.

Looking closer at regional levels of the UK, the largest annual growth was in the North West at 6.5%. This was followed by the South West, East of England and the East Midlands, all of which had a growth rate of 6.4% in the year to August 2017. The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices increased by 2.6% over the year. This is the 9th consecutive month where the growth in London house prices has remained below the UK average. See the economic statement.

Sales during June 2017, the most up-to-date HM Land Registry figures available, show that: