diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 9ea5f9a2..b224956e 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ const app = express()
 app.use(hmpoLogger.middleware())
 
 // add routing for static assets
+app.use('/assets', express.static('./node_modules/govuk-frontend/govuk/assets'))
 app.use('/public', express.static('./public'))
 
 // cookies and sessions (redis or elasticache should be used in a prod env)
diff --git a/src/assets/scss/index.scss b/src/assets/scss/index.scss
index 081eca0b..3913d158 100644
--- a/src/assets/scss/index.scss
+++ b/src/assets/scss/index.scss
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+$govuk-global-styles: true;
+
 @import "node_modules/govuk-frontend/govuk/all";
 @import "node_modules/@x-govuk/govuk-prototype-components/x-govuk/all";
 @import "src/assets/scss/_scrollable-container.scss";