Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG along with a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
Flush from rejoining the FTSE 100, Marks & Spencer has started its legal action against Michael Gove. The levelling up secretary took the decision to block the redevelopment of its Oxford Street flagship, overruling his planning inspector and Westminster City Council in the process. M&S said: “It is hugely disappointing that after two years of support and approvals at every stage, we have been forced to take legal action to overcome a misguided agenda against our scheme, and we will be challenging this to the fullest extent possible.”
The Canadian owner of HMV is attempting to finalise a deal to buy the majority of Wilko. But PwC has raised doubts that a full sale of the collapsed retailer will go ahead.
More than 100 schools have been ordered to close just days before the start of the new academic year. Ministers were responding to fears that the concrete they are built from could crumble “without notice”.
Interest rates may have hit their peak, according to the Bank of England’s top economist. Huw Pill says he favours scaling Table Mountain to attempting an assault on the Matterhorn, which appears to be economist speak for “keep rates at 5.25% for longer”.
Meanwhile, HSBC has become the latest business to order its staff to return to the office. Readers may recall that the reason it gave for leaving its Canary Wharf HQ in favour of new digs near St Pauls was because of the impact of hybrid working.
The children of despots and autocratic rulers own more than £250m of UK property, a trawl through the Register of Overseas Entities has revealed, with Azerbaijan’s Aliyev family owning almost £200m.
The restaurant company behind The Wolseley in London’s West End of London will push on with expansion plans after reporting record results. Last year it appeared to be pulling back, after handing the keys to its Bicester Village outpost back to landlords.
Meanwhile, we meet the future of real estate, in the form of the nine Rising Stars shortlisted for EG’s prize.
Or will generative AI mean the future of real estate has no need for humans, however impressive? Spoiler alert: the robots won’t replace us just yet.
And finally, Savills is selling the former home of spy novelist John le Carré. Tregiffian Cottage(£) in south-west Cornwall was where Le Carré – real name, somewhat appropriately, David Cornwell – wrote many of his novels. He bought it as a small terrace of dilapidated fishermen’s cottages in the late 1960s and spent decades turning it into a stunning country home. The process, conducted with as much painstaking attention to craft and detail as any of his books, clearly paid off. Savills is marketing it at £3m.
