MORNING NEWS: Meet the women bringing the UK’s cities back to life

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals. There’s something poetic about a focus on three women working hard to bring three of the UK’s core cities back to life falling on International Women’s Day, completely unintended. It’s an example of the progress real estate has made in resetting the gender balance when it comes to leadership. Here, Birmingham City Council chief executive Deborah Cadman shares how she’s staying focused on ensuring the city thrives through the adversity it finds itself in today. “The city is like a really complicated, vibrant game of KerPlunk,” she tells EG. “Birmingham City Council is one of the players and we’re having to pull the stick out halfway at the moment. And we’re doing it carefully and thoughtfully, in a way which means that the marbles don’t fall through.” In Liverpool, Nuala Gallagher, corporate director of city development at the council, has also had to roll up her sleeves and work to get a city on the down turned around. “We are being upfront and open with people about where we are on the journey,” she says. “We want to work with people, we want to have an open-door approach, and get good partners back and invested in the city.” Gallagher says things are feeling “settled and stable” in the city now. “We’re not in ‘excellent’ mode yet,”, she says, “but we’re progressing towards it.” And in Glasgow, leader of the council Susan Aitken, is determined to move the dial and make Glasgow a place synonymous with inclusive growth. “We are trying to deliver as much mutual benefit for everyone as possible,” she says. “There is real potential for a much more diverse usage in our inner-city centre, of having innovation right in the heart of Glasgow city centre alongside more traditional uses.” For EG magazine readers, you’ll see that this week’s interview is with another leading woman in real estate who has had to fight hard to turn the fortunes of Hammerson around. Although chief executive Rita-Rose Gagné’s work is far from done at the REIT, its fortunes are turning. Since joining in November 2020, Rita-Rose Gagné has had to put the business on a pretty tough workout regime. She has had to slim down the business significantly, selling some £950m of assets and shrinking its headcount by some 68% as part of a robust cost-cutting initiative. We have a lot of opportunity in the portfolio,” she says. “And that’s a great thing to have these days as a lot of companies just have an operating portfolio, where there’s not that much to do to create value. We have a lot of catalysts to drive further value. And I’m very focused on that now. “As focused as I was to turn around the company and bring it to where it is, I’m just as focused now to get the maximum potential out of this great portfolio. We’re now on the front foot, and that’s exciting.” She adds: “Obviously it remains a challenge, and we’re eyes wide open on the overall volatility in the market, but I’m quite happy that we’ve put ourselves in a very resilient position to weather that volatility.” Elsewhere in the world of retail, Capital & Regional has had to delay publication of its full-year results as new auditors ask for more time to oversee the report. It did, however, share a positive update on the market with an increase in new lettings agreed – up from 80 to 86 – and an increase in rental tone, with new deals agreed at an average of 6.8% higher than the previous rent and 16.6% above ERV. “Our ongoing focus on delivering our proven community centre strategy and increasing our weighting to non-discretionary and needs-based retail and services categories has helped us deliver another positive year of progress,” says chief executive Lawrence Hutchings.  “Consumers are increasingly focused on value for money as well as prioritising spend on non-discretionary items. Our value-based retailers are responding by expanding their store footprints into the types of well-managed, high-footfall centres offering affordable space in urban locations, that make up our portfolio.”   All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: Capital & Regional delays full-year resultsMeet the women bringing the UK’s cities back to lifeEG Interview: Gagné readies to flex some muscleNewcastle: the right place and the right timeMurrayTwohig hires former Battersea Power Station directorIn pictures: Cycle to MIPIM rides from Calais to SoisssonsHines acquires 260-bed Bristol PBSAJeremy Hunt pulls £200m from councils after clawing back house sale funds (£) Morgan Stanley’s $1bn cash demand put Mike Ashley’s entire business at risk, lawyers claim (£) Selfridges tycoon files for insolvency (£)Frasers puts Matchesfashion into administration (£)