Daily Telegraph readers, more used to a front-page diet of health, horse and the highborn, may have been jolted by Tuesday’s rights to light splash. A slow news day? No. It was recognition that little matters more than planning law.
The report of the “attack” made clear which way the Telegraph leans on this matter. And the tone seemed to chime with its readers. Some 557 of them had posted comments by Thursday afternoon. I only had a quick scan, but it would be fair to say that they were not universally pro-development.
Developers themselves saw it differently, with those we spoke to enthused by this week’s Law Commission proposals. Since the 2010 Heaney ruling – which forced partial demolition of a building in Leeds – critics have said smaller, compromised schemes that deliver less value to the public purse or the economy have been the upshot.
So the proposal for a “put up or shut up” notice procedure requiring landowners to tell developers if they intend to seek an injunction is especially welcome, as is the legal test to establish whether damages can be paid instead of suspending development. The proposal to scrap rules that automatically grant rights to light after 20 years will perhaps prove most controversial but, again, it is a sensible move.
You have three months to have your say on the consultation. Then it is up to government to decide, though wheels, inevitably, will turn slowly. But the removal of obstacles to development – while retaining proper safeguards – has to be welcome.
If you were in the Slough area this week and heard the sound of tables being thumped, it came from SEGRO’s offices. And forgive them; their frustration is understandable.
The company has been forced to halt a prime west London development because HS2 has earmarked the site for a construction compound. A safeguarding order has been put on SEGRO’s 24-acre Origin site, NW10, to use it to co-ordinate construction of the London end of the proposed line.
Now if you think this is a necessary act to deliver a project with benefits wider than SEGRO’s own, think again. The order prevents the developer from starting work on the 460,000 sq ft scheme at the former Guinness Brewery site for which it won planning permission this month. The REIT says the project would create up to 1,400 jobs and would boost the economy by just shy of £900m over the next decade and a half. And it has offered an alternative site for HS2’s use as an equipment car park.
I can’t put it better than chief operating officer Andrew Gulliford, who told EG: “We are keen to see infrastructure built that creates economic benefit, but the issue for us is they are actually inhibiting an economic generator.”
Surely sense will prevail?
The stock market continues to prove that economic reason need not weigh too heavily when it comes to equities, with the FTSE100 smashing the symbolic 6,400-point barrier this week on the prospect of further quantitative easing.
Now Countrywide says it wants to join the party, unveiling plans for a £200m return to the London Stock Exchange. No doubt it watched the performance of Crest Nicholson, which relisted last week, carefully. The housebuilder continued to trade well, valuing the company significantly higher than its £553m pre-float target.
Can it continue? Well, the economic news this week wasn’t bad: the 4G auction disappointed but there was good growth in employment, decent public finance news and a bounce in CBI orders.
There is little to suggest a corner has been turned but, for equities at least, that’s not necessarily a problem.
Expect more private property-related businesses to dip a toe in the equity pool over the coming months.
damian.wild@estatesgazette.com
