YTL Developments is working with one of the UK’s largest housing associations

The company building the new Brabazon development to the north of Bristol is partnering with one of the UK’s largest housing associations to deliver 1,700 affordable homes as part of the scheme.

YTL Developments said the deal would help “address the full breadth” of the housing challenge across the region.

The Malaysia-based firm is behind the vast scheme on the old Filton Airfield, which will have some 6,500 homes when completed as well as student accommodation, offices, community facilities, 86 acres of parks and green space, and the new Bristol Brabazon train station.

The development was among seven areas of the UK to receive town status from the government last year.

Under the agreement, YTL Developments and Sovereign Network Group (SNG) will provide affordable homes to support the housing demands of the growing urban area.

SNG already has a strong presence in the area, with some 1,700 homes across Bristol and South Gloucestershire. It has also delivered around 30 per cent of the affordable homes already built at Brabazon.

Seb Loyn, director of planning and development at YTL Developments, said: “Partnerships are the only way to address the full breadth of the housing challenge.

“By working together, we can combine expertise, resources and ambition to deliver the quality homes and thriving communities that people need.”

SNG and YTL Developments are also in advanced negotiation to establish a long-term SNG office base within one of Brabazon’s flagship commercial buildings.

The masterplan for Brabazon includes more than three million sq ft of office and employment space.

Charlie Stevens, SNG’s regional managing director for the West, said: “SNG and YTL Developments share an ambition to create well-designed, thriving neighbourhoods and support the long-term success of one of the South West’s most significant regeneration projects.

“This partnership will help us to develop innovative solutions that balance housing need with residents’ aspirations, while ensuring new communities remain financially sustainable, inclusive and great places to live.”

Digital sovereignty has gone – relatively quickly – from being a niche policy interest, to a mainstream business consideration across multiple regions of the world.

One of the most outspoken players has been the European Union, with its Gaia-X initiative, a wave of binding regulation, and a series of high-profile procurement decisions.

The combination of these changes made it unequivocally clear that the question of who controls critical data infrastructure is no longer a theoretical debate. Awareness of what has actually changed (and what this change means in practice) is becoming increasingly relevant for any business working across borders.

From summits to something tangible

The first European Summit on Digital Sovereignty was convened in November 2025 with the initiative of France and Germany. It brought in politicians, regulators, and industry leaders with the goal of mapping out concrete commitments instead of position papers.

A joint task force on digital sovereignty was produced as a result of this summit, due to report back in 2026. Meanwhile, Gaia-X released its Trust Framework 3.0 that enabled federated trust structures across borders and sectors.

The figures revealed during this summit are more telling than the announcement itself. Gaia-X now counts more than 15 operational data spaces, which is a noticeable difference from the long list of projects that were previously only known as “in preparation.” Cloud Temple became the first provider that got certified at the highest sovereignty label of this initiative.

Corporate procurement has also begun to follow the same route. Airbus issued a tender worth more than €50 million to migrate mission-critical environments to a sovereign European cloud. BMW continues its expansion of the Catena-X data-sharing network. Germany’s armed forces have signed a seven-year-long contract with the purpose of using an open-source alternative to replace Microsoft 365.

While none of this can be treated as the EU being on par with the American hyperscalers, it is an indication of procurement decisions and infrastructure investments being made based on security concerns, not just policy statements.

Why “stored in Europe” is not the same as “sovereign”

There is an important distinction relevant to this topic: where data is stored physically is not the same as whose laws govern it.

For example, AWS launched a European Sovereign Cloud in Brandenburg in January 2026. It’s structured as a standalone German entity with EU-based executives and an investment fund of several billion euros behind it. On paper, it resembles exactly the kind of cloud storage European regulators have been looking for. In reality, the parent company of AWS is still American, meaning that the US CLOUD Act still applies – allowing US authorities to compel American companies to hand over data they control at any point in time.

The chief executive of Gaia-X has been very blunt on this topic, clearly stating that the highest level of sovereignty can only be achieved by providers that have their headquarters on European soil. If the service is run by a US company (even with European staff and data centers), it’s still subject to American legislation.

This single factor cannot be considered a mere technicality. It’s significant enough to be the difference between a compliance checkbox and a genuine answer to a question of who can access this data and under what authority.

What it means for business decisions

Sovereignty is no longer a question that can be stalled indefinitely from the business side. Not only the EU Data Act has been in force since September 2025, but there are also multiple sector-specific rules (such as DORA for finances and NIS2 for critical infrastructure) that are tightening the same constraints, as well. None of these regulations treat sovereignty as optional.

According to survey data from Germany’s Bitkom, there are already many businesses around the globe that want independence from foreign infrastructure but have not acted on these wishes yet, despite the trust in some foreign providers having fallen sharply recently. This specific gap between intention and action is exactly where all the rushed and expensive decisions come from – mostly under regulatory pressure instead of a considered timeline.

In this context, there are a few basic questions that are worth raising as early as possible from the business side: where does data actually reside, and under whose jurisdiction; what do existing cloud contracts say about data access requests from foreign authorities; and were a rapid migration away from a provider necessary, would it actually be possible?

The recovery question most discussions overlook

Most discussions about digital sovereignty work from determining where data lives day by day: including specific cloud providers, specific data centers, and the specific jurisdiction it works under. These are legitimate questions, but they address only the visible layer of a much deeper dependency.

Sovereignty, properly understood, also requires control over what an organisation can recover from when infrastructure fails – and this dimension is one that policymakers have been slower to address than the infrastructure and regulatory questions that tend to dominate the conversation.

The gap is significant. Regulatory frameworks such as the EU Data Act, NIS2, and DORA establish requirements around data residency, access controls, and operational resilience, but they leave the specifics of backup architecture and recovery sovereignty largely to individual organisations to determine. A business can be fully compliant on paper while remaining entirely dependent on a foreign vendor’s proprietary backup infrastructure – one it cannot fully audit, migrate away from, or recover independently in a crisis.

This is precisely the argument that backup and recovery vendors have begun to make recently. Swiss company Bacula Systems describes this logic as “sovereign recovery” – the idea that a sovereign cloud strategy at a given moment is only going to be as resilient as the recovery infrastructure it works under.

Whenever a backup data is stored in an environment the organization does not have a full control over, created using formats that are problematic migration-wise, or tied to the infrastructure of an individual vendor – the validity of sovereignty claims becomes significantly less absolute and may not hold up under real pressure.

Irrespective of whether or not a given vendor’s approach is going to suit a particular organization, the overall point still stands. Cloud provider selection has been dominating the sovereignty conversation, while the recovery layer has received a lot less scrutiny in comparison.

The whiteboard phase is over

None of these arguments mean that all the existing infrastructure should be disassembled overnight. No serious case is being made for businesses to sever all ties with their current “foreign” technology. However, it does increase the likelihood that businesses treating digital sovereignty as someone else’s problem are the ones that are most likely going to have to make some rushed decisions under regulatory pressure within the next year or two.

The policy debate has finally moved on from abstract principles to creating practical operational data spaces, substantial procurement tenders, and binding regulations. This change is the reason why most businesses cannot simply consider sovereignty as an optional topic – as they now have to think whether they have established where their data resides, who has access to it, and what they are going to recover from if the need to do so arises.

Recruitment of permanent staff stopped falling in July for the first time in nearly four years, according to the report on jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG, published on Monday.

The survey’s index of permanent staff placements reached 50 points, the level that separates growth from contraction. It had been below that mark every month since the autumn of 2022, the longest run of decline in the index’s history.

Maxine Bligh, the REC’s chief membership and innovation officer, said: “Rays of light are beginning to break through for the job market as employers revive hiring plans.

“Remarkably, this is the first month without a decline in permanent placements since Liz Truss resigned as prime minister in 2022, underlining just how prolonged the downturn in permanent hiring has been.”

Businesses in London took on new full-time staff at the quickest pace in nearly four years, the report showed. Permanent placements continued to decline in the north of England.

Callum Licence, group head of advisory at KPMG UK and Switzerland, said: “Over the past 45 months we have seen the longest recorded period of contraction in the permanent placements index, so to finally have it stable is a big milestone.”

The survey’s vacancies index rose to 47.1, its highest reading since September 2024, although it remains below the 50-point growth threshold. Vacancies for part-time roles increased at the fastest pace since August 2023, extending a trend picked up in June, when the same survey showed part-time hiring at a three-year high.

Pay growth for full-time staff reached a six-month high in July and has risen every month since March 2021, the survey found. That contrasts with official figures from the Office for National Statistics, which have shown private sector pay growth slowing to a six-year low. The latest ONS estimates showed unemployment stabilised at 4.9 per cent over the last quarter.

The REC-KPMG survey is closely watched as a gauge of labour market conditions because of concerns about the quality of official employment data.

The stabilisation follows a prolonged period of rising employment costs. Employer national insurance contributions were increased by £25 billion in Rachel Reeves’s 2024 budget, alongside rises in the minimum wage, while energy prices climbed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the war in the Middle East has pushed up oil prices. Over the same period, unemployment has risen to its highest level since the pandemic.

As recently as December, the same survey showed permanent and temporary hiring both falling, with permanent placements at a four-month low.

The figures will also be studied by the Bank of England, which has held interest rates at 3.75 per cent since December while inflation, at 2.6 per cent, remains above its 2 per cent target. Central banks monitor pay settlements closely because sustained increases can keep inflation above target.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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FIRST ON FOX: In the heart of Manhattan, at the corner of Broadway and West 43rd Street, a massive new billboard is sending a provocative message to New York leadership: “Thanks for the jobs!”

As America faces what business leaders call a historic choice between free enterprise and expanding government control, Florida is taking the ideological fight directly to the doorstep of Democratic socialism. 

Armed with a $1.8 trillion economy and record-breaking wealth migration, the Florida Chamber of Commerce has officially launched a Times Square campaign naming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani Florida’s “Economic Developer of the Year” — a reminder, according to the Chamber, of how progressive taxes and socialist policies are driving wealth, businesses and families to the Sunshine State.

“We wanted to thank him for the jobs, the companies, the people that they’re pushing out of New York — and a lot of them are coming to Florida,” Chamber CEO Mark Wilson first told Fox News Digital on Monday.

“America is at a crossroads right now. I think everyone that’s paying attention knows that our country was built on freedom and free enterprise and people having the liberty to make their dreams come true,” he said. “And there’s a push in our country right now to take those liberties away and to attack free enterprise. And that’s never worked anywhere, and it won’t work in America.”

FLORIDA STOCK RISING: HOW IT BECAME WORLD’S 14TH LARGEST ECONOMY AS BLUE STATES CONTINUE A ‘DEATH SPIRAL’

“What Mayor Mamdani is doing is dangerous for the country, right? It’s bad for New Yorkers. It’s bad for New York. It’s very harmful for the country,” Wilson continued. “We can choose free enterprise, which is what America was built on, or we can choose to destroy that, which is what the social[ist] policies do… And so, what we’re hoping happens from this campaign is that we refocus America on free enterprise.”

The Florida Chamber’s digital billboard can be found at 1500 Broadway and W. 43rd St. in Times Square. (Nikolas Lanum/Fox News Digital / FOXBusiness)

In addition to putting the onus on Mamdani, the Chamber’s campaign highlights its argument that lower tax rates yield higher total state revenues by incentivizing growth, while blue-state tax hikes trigger a tax-based exodus. According to the Chamber, citing IRS migration data, Florida gains approximately $2.4 million in net taxable income every hour, while New York loses approximately $1.1 million per hour. The Chamber also says Florida gains a net 551 residents daily, compared to New York losing 115 residents daily.

According to the Chamber’s press release, New York’s state budget is more than double Florida’s, and New York City’s municipal budget alone is more than $8 billion higher than the entire Florida state budget.

“What do people like Mayor Mamdani do? They want to then increase taxes on the people who are left, which just further accelerates people leaving places like New York,” Wilson explained.

“Florida’s lowered taxes over 50 times in the last 15 years. And we have record revenues coming in because people want to be here. And when the economy grows, tax revenues grow. That’s how free enterprise works,” Wilson said.

“The socialist agenda sounds crazy because it is crazy, right? ‘Free Enterprise Florida’ is a way to highlight what happens in states like Florida — when we focus on less tax, less government, more freedom, more liberty — and what happens in places like New York when they increase taxes and regulation,” the CEO added. “So this is an opportunity for people in New York and people across the country to say, ‘Hey, we have a choice to make here.’”

“What we’re really trying to do here is remind people that America is an experiment. It’s 50 states competing for where do we take America going forward? And I think if you look at the scorecard of how Florida is doing compared to how New York is doing, we want to help New York follow in Florida’s footsteps.”

According to Wilson, Florida is not seeking to tear down New York or “spike the football,” but rather wants every state to succeed by embracing free-market principles to boost overall U.S. GDP growth.

“Even though Florida is winning right now, we’re not looking for New York to lose. We’re hoping that these other states will say ‘no’ to this move towards socialism and say ‘yes’ to the very policies that our country was founded on,” he said. “This isn’t about spiking a football or looking at the scoreboard about Florida versus New York. This is really about trying to save our country from crazy.”

“We’re in a big competition with every other state, but it’s a competition for ideas. And we’re trying to highlight to the country that free enterprise wins every single time. It’s what’s best for customers, it’s what’s best for job creators. And if we focus on it in America, we can get back to that three-plus percent GDP growth, which is what our country really needs,” Wilson noted.

Mayor Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Wilson also outlined future targets for the “Free Enterprise Florida” campaign beyond Manhattan while highlighting decades of bipartisan and conservative governance that built Florida’s modern economic engine.

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“We had to start in New York City because the mayor of New York City, obviously, is pushing that community into a direction that it’s not good for the people who live there,” the CEO said. “But there’s several runner-ups for this. When you look at Chicago, when you look at California, Minneapolis, there’s places all over the country that come in a close second to the movement in New York City. So we’re gonna continue to highlight what works.”

“Our country is celebrating 250 years this year, and it has a lot to do with our freedom, our faith and our free enterprise,” Wilson said. “And I think if we can focus on free enterprise for the next few years and make that what we base our decisions on, then this country can grow at 3% GDP, and we’ll once again get back on the track that we need to be.”

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