MORNING NEWS: Review of Landlord & Tenant Act launched

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, all perfectly curated to set you up for the day ahead. Big news this morning as potential reform of one of the most fundamentally important pieces of legislation for commercial property has moved a step closer. The Law Commission has finally launched its initial consultation on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. This is the first in a two-stage process in which the Law Commission seeks the views of a wide range of stakeholders on the future of the 70-year-old legislation and the important issue of security of tenure for commercial tenants. The current law gives business tenants the right to renew their tenancies when they expire, under certain conditions. While the law has been updated in the past – notably to allow tenants to “contract out” of the right when the tenancy is granted – it is now around 20 years since the last significant updates were made. “For many years now, some sectors of the commercial property market have been urging revision or repeal of Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 – legislation designed for the post-war era of scarce property and exploited tenants,” Guy Fetherstonhaugh KC, barrister at Falcon Chambers, told EG. “Is security of tenure really paramount in days when so much of the high street is vacant that the government is bringing in compulsory vacant property rental auctions? And even if our legislators shrink from total repeal, there is much that can be done to oil some of the creaking machinery of the Act.” The consultation is open until 19 February 2025. Elsewhere, Novel Student Holdings, the European student accommodation operating platform of Chicago-based CA Ventures, is being wound down after a rescue plan to spin the business out of its parent company failed. The firm has had to make around a dozen redundancies after an £80m cash injection from Bahraini bank GFH Financial Group failed to materialise. And the extent of obsolescence across Europe’s office holdings has been revealed in a new report from Cushman & Wakefield that shows a potential 2bn sq ft headache – or opportunity, perhaps. There’s a clear east/west divide too, finds the report, with an average of 80% of office stock across Western Europe facing obsolescence, compared with 43% in Eastern Europe. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: Almost 2bn sq ft of European offices at risk of obsolescenceLaw Commission kicks off review of Landlord & Tenant Act 1954Xpercity drives forward proposals for Weavers YardPlans submitted to turn Home Office towers into homesArchitect Taha sells controversial London officePersimmon and Barratt Redrow agree 2,500-home jv Big Yellow looks to replenish development pipelineCOMMENT: Building bricks – Lego’s lessons for real estateQuality of Life Foundation unveils community engagement code of practiceLondon’s The Standard hotel sold in £185m dealMayor picks Dame Karen Buck to chair OPDCFailed rescue plan forces CA Ventures’ student platform into liquidationDerby launches consultation on railway site regeneration planFormer Savills man pleads guilty over racist tweetLISTEN: How to be a better businessTrio of occupiers moves to Cheshire business park‘The window is closing’: Sirius knocks on doors for dealsB&M makes a home at 674,000 sq ft Ellesmere Port logistics siteColliers’ London office team appoints directorCBRE nabs Turley quartet to establish Scottish planning divisionPlans in for Wolverhampton city centre regenerationFusion seeks funding partner for PBSA portfolioMontagu Evans hires former JLL director for industrial roleL&G signs trio of deals for Glasgow fitted officesNational deals round-upHolborn office hits the marketSVP buys giant Dublin shopping mallBudget ‘not consistent with growth’, warns FTSE 100 property boss (£)Morrisons unloads another £200m from debt trolley (£)UK retailers warn Reeves of £7bn hit from Budget changes (£)Brewdog shuts Mumbai bars in blow to India expansion plans (£)Why I’m challenging sexism in the property industry (£)