Leader column from Estates Gazette 18.6.11
Developers are fast making a case for themselves as one of the most influential business groups in the UK.
Back in March the industry welcomed a Budget for property that “went further than even the most optimistic could have predicted”. Fast forward to this week and there was a double whammy of further good news.
First culture secretary Jeremy Hunt rejected English Heritage’s recommendations that Broadgate Square, EC2, should be listed. (He was more interested in job preservation than built heritage preservation, suggested cynics).
And then Greg Clark finally delivered ministers’ much-trumpeted definition of their “presumption in favour of sustainable development”. If it lives up to its billing, it will kill stone dead fears that the new planning regime could be a nimby’s charter.
The presumption, which will be at the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework, sets a default position that development should go ahead if a scheme is in line with an area’s neighbourhood plan. Without an up-to-date plan, decisions will be made according to national policy. So if there is no conflict with environmental and other safeguards in the national framework, development will be allowed to proceed.
The definition delivers clarity, it should increase the velocity of decision-making and it will reduce the threat of appeals.
Clark has effectively created a planning system where the default answer to development requests is “yes”. In doing so he has put developers more in the driving seat than they have been for 65 years, when planning permission first became a requirement.
Of course, there are dangers. Too much laxity and too few checks could result in permission being granted where it is not appropriate. Issues around scale, environmental impact, architectural quality and heritage must be considered.
For a government that has been thin on policy detail so far, it is a bold step.
The seven-year sentence handed down to Ian McGarry this week for conducting fraudulent valuations will act as a deterrent for any others so inclined. RICS’ recent work on valuation isn’t about tackling fraud. But it could help; it introduced the mandatory Valuer Registration Scheme in April. And RICS Regulation regularly works with law enforcement agencies and other regulators. This will make the opportunistic think twice; dealing with the determined remains as hard as ever.
n There is something familiar about the way in which Jones Lang LaSalle and King Sturge are coming together. The two have talked of mutual strengths, cultural alignment and business synergies. Care has been taken in presenting it that way: of the 19-strong executive, 12 members have a JLL heritage, seven King Sturge. Now with a 30-day consultation period under way, other management positions are being filled.
Necessarily, there is a whiff of politics to the proceedings as different interests are balanced and messages massaged. Inevitable comparisons with the coalition have been drawn.
It will be interesting to see how many of the JLL senior contingent are at King Sturge’s headline annual client event next week in London. This year it’s not just the art that will be on show at the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition.
The deadline for the Estates Gazette Awards has been extended to 1 July. There are new categories for occupiers and start-ups as well as the usual propco/adviser categories. With the property world changing fast – M&A, technology and the conventional funding drought are all having an impact – standing out from your peers is vital. An EG award can help you do just that. To enter go to www.egawardsevent.com
