diff --git a/application.py b/application.py
index a6d70b654..b2d4889be 100644
--- a/application.py
+++ b/application.py
@@ -1,16 +1,6 @@
-import os
-
 from flask import Flask
-from whitenoise import WhiteNoise
-
 from app import create_app
 
-PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
-STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'app', 'static')
-STATIC_URL = 'static/'
+application = Flask('app')
 
-flask_app = Flask('app')
-
-create_app(flask_app)
-
-application = WhiteNoise(flask_app.wsgi_app, STATIC_ROOT, STATIC_URL, max_age=WhiteNoise.FOREVER)
+create_app(application)
diff --git a/requirements-app.txt b/requirements-app.txt
index 84ae998ab..75797737f 100644
--- a/requirements-app.txt
+++ b/requirements-app.txt
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ pyexcel-xlsx==0.5.6
 pyexcel-ods3==0.5.3
 pytz==2018.7
 gunicorn==19.7.1  # >19.8 stops eventlet workers after a timeout
-whitenoise==4.1.2  #manages static assets
 eventlet==0.24.1
 notifications-python-client==5.2.0
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1d5d6932f..b3cb52a59 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ pyexcel-xlsx==0.5.6
 pyexcel-ods3==0.5.3
 pytz==2018.7
 gunicorn==19.7.1  # >19.8 stops eventlet workers after a timeout
-whitenoise==4.1.2  #manages static assets
 eventlet==0.24.1
 notifications-python-client==5.2.0
 
@@ -29,10 +28,10 @@ itsdangerous==0.24  # pyup: <1.0.0
 git+https://github.com/alphagov/notifications-utils.git@30.7.1#egg=notifications-utils==30.7.1
 
 ## The following requirements were added by pip freeze:
-awscli==1.16.75
+awscli==1.16.80
 bleach==2.1.3
 boto3==1.6.16
-botocore==1.12.65
+botocore==1.12.70
 certifi==2018.11.29
 chardet==3.0.4
 Click==7.0
@@ -76,5 +75,5 @@ urllib3==1.24.1
 webencodings==0.5.1
 Werkzeug==0.14.1
 WTForms==2.2.1
-xlrd==1.1.0
+xlrd==1.2.0
 xlwt==1.3.0