Good morning.
The PM is under mounting pressure(£) to introduce a “circuit breaker” national lockdown(£). The leader of the opposition and Sage scientists(£) are pushing for the two-week restrictions.
Britain has nearly the least competitive property taxes(£) in the OECD. But you knew that, right?
And, according to the IMF, the UK will be borrowing nearly £100bn a year(£) until the next parliament, as the world grapples with the £21.5tn pandemic bill.
REITs were among those feeling the pain on the markets yesterday, as the three-tier lockdown came into force.
And PureGym, the UK’s biggest gym chain, says it could launch a legal challenge against the Liverpool lockdown.
Meanwhile, total UK commercial investment volumes reached £6.5bn in Q3. It may be 50% below the five-year quarterly trend level, but at least its 48% up on Q2.
The City of London has created the first virtual reality map(£) of the financial district as an aide to developers…
… As artificial intelligence building technology start-up BrainBox AI launches today in the UK and Ireland, as part of a global expansion.
East West Insurance(£) has fallen into administration after being hit by claims for ‘Grenfell-style’ cladding.
BlackRock’s assets(£) under management swelled to a record $7.8tn in the third quarter.
Amazon will simply cement its retail dominance(£), as it passes on the new digi-tax to third parties.
Meanwhile, Tesco’s new boss Ken Murphy will have to focus on fulfilment, says The Times (£).
EG rounds up the housing priorities of Argent co-founder Peter Freeman, who is currently waiting to see if he will be confirmed as the next Homes England chair.
Covid write-downs have done nothing to dampen Singapore Press Holdings’ appetite for UK purpose built student accommodation.
Former Barings man Christoph Wittkop hopes that the opportunities will be more than the risks, as he prepares to launch Sonar Real Estate.
Cineworld(£) and Odeon(£) have warned they may run out of cash before Christmas.
Metro Bank(£) has become the latest lender to stop opening new business accounts.
And BDO now audits more accounts(£) than any of the Big Four (but most of its clients are little).
LGIM will warn 500 companies(£) to do more to tackle climate change or risk being publicly named and shamed.
HS2 is running £800m over budget, despite the prime minister hitting the “reset” button six months ago(£).
SSE has sold its interest(£) in energy-from-waste power plants in West Yorkshire for £995m(£).
The FT (£) asks: is China’s Evergrande is too big to fail?
Meanwhile, in Ireland the government’s new affordable housing scheme(£) has been criticised as simply a prop to already high house prices.
The ruins of what is thought to be the oldest surviving church(£) in England have been made a scheduled monument.
In between doing laps of Finsbury Park and working from the bottom of his garden, HTA Design’s Ben Derbyshire manages to find a bit of time to pass on some good advice in this week’s Lockdown Diaries.
While The FT (£) goes for a snoop around architect Amanda Levete’s house.
And finally, the Artemis accords have been signed(£) by Western allies to set the scene for future colonies in space. But, notably, China and Russia have refused to sign. Song Zhongping, a Chinese aerospace expert, told the state-owned Global Times newspaper that the accords were like a modern version of Britain’s enclosures movement, when aristocrats made a land grab on common holdings. The US was “claiming sovereignty over the moon” and pursuing its “colonisation”, he said.
