Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG as well as a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
Planning permissions have fallen by 12% over the quarter, with commercial developments approved falling 6%. For the year to date, approvals are down by 13%.
So Aldi might have its work cut out, as it now wants to open 1,500 stores across the UK. It opened its 1,000th store yesterday, in Woking.
Meanwhile, Woking Council is looking to sell regeneration sites. The “bankrupt” council said it could not afford to complete its 1,200-home regeneration of the Sheerwater estate and would seek “alternative options” to finish the project.
The chair of Lloyds of London is the latest to tell staff to get back to their desks.
And the Treasury has refused to reinstate tax-free shopping, following a Commons debate. Cadogan boss Hugh Seaborn said: “VAT-free shopping is an open goal that this government keeps missing.”
Meanwhile, Landsec chief Mark Allan makes the case for truly engaging with local communities. It may seem counterintuitive, but it is the only way to speed up the planning process and unlock growth.
Talking of engaging communities, there are only three days left until we close our independent survey on the RICS’ self-regulation and governing council models. If you haven’t already, make sure you take the opportunity to have your say. The poll will close on Monday.
In other news, Acuitus’s September commercial property sale will be its largest auction in three years. Highlights include a couple of properties in Kensington and a portfolio of five pubs.
House prices are falling at their fastest rate since the global financial crisis, hitting their lowest level in real terms since 2016.
And dangerously crumbling concrete is present in more hospitals than had been thought, with seven requiring a complete rebuild.
A merger between two housing associations, Sovereign and Network Homes, has been approved.
A Victorian crescent in Cardiff has been bulldozed without planning consent.
And a third man has been arrested in connection with the Crooked House arson investigation.
And finally, some of the English acting establishment’s finest have united to object to a Malibu-style mansion in the Arts and Crafts heart of West Hampstead. Dame Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter have all objected the the plan, which is clearly too Hollywood for the actors.
