MORNING NEWS: Frontrunner to buy Edinburgh St James stake revealed

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers. Redical Holdings, the retail investor set up by Mikko Syrjanen and Petteri Barman in 2020, is frontrunner in the race to buy a stake in one of the best shopping centres in the UK. The firm is under offer to buy a 25% holding in the 850,000 sq ft retail element of St James Quarter in Edinburgh for around £75m. Nuveen put its stake in the 1.7m sq ft development up for sale in June, alongside the freehold of the 244-bedroom W Edinburgh hotel. The chairman of PRS REIT has quit so the company can reach a “near-term resolution” with shareholders pushing for his exit. A group of investors had requested a general meeting at which shareholders could vote to remove two of PRS REIT’s five existing independent non-executive directors, chairman Stephen Smith and Steffan Francis. Smith will step down at the REIT’s annual general meeting in December, with Geeta Nanda, senior independent director, becoming interim chair and leading the appointment process for a new, permanent non-executive chair. Harworth chief executive Lynda Shillaw has urged the government to help the real estate industry and prioritise fixing an under-resourced planning system. In an interview as the developer published its half-year results, Shillaw said resourcing in local authorities remains the most pressing element of planning reform. “The technical complexity of what has to be submitted [in a planning application] has only increased over recent years,” she says. “Things like biodiversity net gain and other aspects of the planning system as it is being reformed mean that planning applications are just more complicated and harder to work through. “Some local authorities manage that process better than others, where they’ve got the depth and experience of resource. It’s often a real challenge for smaller authorities. If you are going to get the planning system working more efficiently, they’ve got to look at resources. They talked about 300 additional planners, but in terms of overall planning resource and capacity it probably needs to be a whole lot more.” The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched a survey looking at how national planning policy and guidance around the demolition and redevelopment or retrofit of buildings should be updated. LPA chief executive Charles Begley welcomed the move, saying: “Government has an opportunity to progress its economic growth and sustainability ambitions through the planning system, in turn helping local councils take informed and balanced decisions based on reliable and consistent data.” There’s also news on Brookfield’s plans for EG’s home at 99 Bishopsgate; the latest London retail lettings for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield; and a new London restructuring head at Lambert Smith Hampton. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:Buyer revealed for Nuveen’s £1bn Edinburgh St JamesQuadrant Estates on redrawing London’s office market mapPRS REIT chair quits to calm shareholder pressureTriple Point boasts rent collection riseRoundShield closes new fund with $1bn-plus commitmentsM&G lends £285m on prime London retailLSH names new London restructuring headLightbound and Searl to leave Related ArgentBrookfield submits plans for 99 Bishopsgate redevelopmentUK Commercial Property REIT to raise £22m via Edinburgh office saleFarlane launches Nara Living with purchase of two Croydon blocksWorkers want pay rise for full office attendanceWestfield bags bundle of lettingsTT Group sells on Bedfordshire industrial estate in £17m dealHarworth boss on the ‘cold, stark reality’ of planning reformFirethorn Trust snaps up £75m Hackney PBSA schemePanattoni’s Doncaster logistics scheme gets £54m backingEvans Randall looks to sell Amazon-occupied Farringdon officePlans in for £3.8bn data centre in HertfordshireGovernment launches survey on retrofitting real estateBank of England to pause rate cuts, focus shifts to bond salesUK housing market recovered further in August, RICS survey showsIndian tycoon pays £21m for home in London’s Notting Hill (£)John Lewis ‘has its buzz back’, chief declares as losses narrow (£)Housing crisis means 21 hopeful tenants compete for each property (£)New rail line needed between Midlands and northern England, study says (£)