This month has seen several new energy initiatives amid concerns over the country's future generating capacity. Football clubs with their own eye to the future - have been revising their new stadium plans, while more government initiatives have been launched to bolster housing. In infrastructure, there are unresolved issues over the cost of the London Underground Northern Line extension and a possible restoration of a rural rail line in Wales.
Energy
Sainsbury's is seeking to head off a possible future UK energy crisis by producing its own energy.
The retailer has already built small gas-fired plants at ten of its stores, with six more under construction that will come into use this year.
Senior executive at the supermarket Paul Crewe told the Daily Telegraph the measure is being taken amid fears that Britain is not doing enough to ensure its future energy needs are met.
He said: "Energy security is extremely important, it keeps me awake at night if I’m honest thinking about it - especially as we use just under one per cent of power in the UK. We know UK grid infrastructure is at an extremely stretching period of time."
Mr Crewe also said the company is going green as it uses anaerobic digestion plants to convert its food waste into biogas.
It then sells the gas to the National grid, buying back the equivalent amount to power its plants.
A pioneering hybrid energy park in Devon has been given planning permission.
Ecotricity, the largest renewable energy company in Britain, is to develop the park at Bulkworthy, by installing solar panels next door to its Galsworthy wind farm. The park, one of the first of its kind in Britain, will operate by combining solar and wind energy, a more efficient and consistent way of generating power.
The site will have 18,000 panels with a generating capacity of 5MW, which in addition to the Galsworthy turbines will generate enough power for 6,000 homes.
Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: "Hybrid energy parks like this are the future of energy in Britain. The combination of the wind and the sun makes for a more consistent energy supply - and the potential for Britain's energy independence is huge."
The company is also seeking to promote biodiversity at the site through the planting of native hedgerows and species-rich grassland in the surrounding vicinity.
Ecotricity plans further hybrid energy farms in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
Housing
Sadiq Khan has been elected the mayor of London, after pledging to build 80,000 homes a year.
Mr Khan, who was the Labour candidate, beat Tory Zac Goldsmith and will now aim to successfully implement his policy, which will involve half the new homes being classed as affordable.
However, some experts have questioned how achievable the plan is. Tony Travers, professor of London government at the London School of Economics comma said the task of building that many homes can only be achieved as long as everything in the housing market is "going really well".
He suggested a market slowdown will cause developers to hold back on new building, scuppering the targets.
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has pledged to increase the output of its members by 30 per cent in the next two years.
It has agreed a series of measures after talks with the government, including more clarity for local councils over build-out rates and a land exchange scheme in which sections of large sites can be sold by larger firms to smaller builders.
Also central to the plans will be more construction jobs, with extra investment in apprenticeships and training.
Executive chairman of the HBF Stewart Baseley remarked: "Over the past two years the industry has responded to the positive policies introduced by government and has delivered huge increases in output."
He added that this upward trend should continue "provided that the political, economic and policy conditions are conducive".
Welcoming the news, housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis said the HBF plans would help achieve the government's ambition of building a million new homes in the current parliament.
The Queen's Speech included the new Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which will apply to England and Wales and is designed to streamline the way pre-commencement planning conditions are handled. This is intended to speed up the building of new homes.
Commercial
Everton Football Club have abandoned plans to build a new stadium in Walton Hall Park, just a mile from their current Goodison Park home. The plan would have involved building the new venue alongside a shopping centre, but the club and Liverpool City Council issued a joint statement noting that recent developments have tended to be in town or district centres, rather than edge of town locations. The club will now consider two other possible sites in the city.
Aberdeen are another club that have revised plans to move to a new stadium. They now want to move to a site on the western outskirts of the city, near the planned Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. The club, which intends to leave Pittodrie, had previously identified a site in the Loirston area for its new stadium and academy.
Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield is set for a £300 million expansion, with owners British Land planning a 27,800 sq m facility to be titled Leisure Hall. It will contain a cinema, restaurants, an indoor golf facility and a bowling alley, all contained under a vast latticed roof, four times the size of that over King's Cross Station.
Centre director Darren Pearce said: "This is more than it cost to build Meadowhall in the first place so it's a massive commitment by investors to the region."
The owners hope the new facilities will help make a visit to Meadowhall an all-round experience, instead of just a shopping trip.
Infrastructure
Campaigners for the restoration of a rural Welsh railway line that closed in the 1960s have produced a series of aerial photographs to support the case.
Traws Link Cymru is seeking the reopening of the 56-mile link between Aberystwyth to Camarthen, which in turn would enable passengers to travel more directly between west Wales and the main cities of Cardiff and Swansea, without having to make an awkward diversion via Shrewsbury.
Pictures show that most of the old trackbed is still in place, making restoration more feasible.
However, any work that does take place to bring back the old line would not involve reinstating all the old stations, as there were no less than 21 on the route.
The cost of building the Northern line extension into the Nine Elms area of London has increased by £240 million, leaving Transport for London and the developers of Battersea Power Station locked in talks over who will foot the bill for the additional expense.
According to the Evening Standard, the increased cost is mainly due to the developers modifying the design of the above-ground build around the station at the former power station, which has meant the station box has had to be strengthened due to the greater weight of the built area above it.
Director of major programme sponsorship at London Underground David Hughes said: "These design changes will lead to an increase in the overall cost of the project and we are in constructive discussions with the developer about how this cost will be attributed."
It is not the first time the project has hit a hitch, with Construction Enquirer revealing last month that the start of work has been put back six months, although it should still be finished at some point in 2020.
Finally, the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill will place the new National Infrastructure Commission on a statutory footing for the first time.
