Sunday newspaper round-up: Mayoral powers, wind farm applications, Iranian hackers, Reform-Conservative coalition, JLR, WPP, Reform crypto donors, US sanctions

Andy Burnham was poised to hand England's devolved mayors sweeping new powers to take control of major planning decisions, enabling them to "call in" large‑scale developments and grant upfront permission for projects to proceed. According to the Guardian, he measures, backed by ten of the 14 mayors, would apply to schemes of more than 150 homes, commercial sites over 15,000 square metres, or buildings taller than 30 metres. The move brings regional leaders into line with London mayor Sadiq Khan, who received similar powers earlier this year to unblock stalled housing sites.

Applications for new onshore windfarms in England have climbed to their highest annual level in a decade after Labour scrapped the Conservatives' de facto ban, the Guardian reported. Around 45 projects were submitted in the year ended 31 March, with onshore wind capacity entering the planning system more than tripling since Labour took office. Monthly applications have risen from roughly nine megawatts before the election to about 36mw this year, marking a sharp revival from the sector's pre‑2023 lows.

Iranian‑linked hackers forced a British power plant offline for four days in an unprecedented cyber attack, according to The Telegraph. Officials declined to identify the facility, though the outage was contained and did not affect national power supplies. The incident coincided with cyber attacks on US water infrastructure across 12 states, prompting the UK government to brief energy executives and issue new guidance to businesses.