The industry fears legislation on commercial leases may be imminent, following a damning report by Reading University.
The interim report, compiled by Neil Crosby, Reading University’s professor of real estate, concludes that the voluntary code of commercial leases introduced in 2002 has been followed by big landlords such as Land Securities, Hammerson and Slough Estates, but ignored by smaller ones.
The code promotes more flexible leases and discourages upward-only rent reviews, but the report concludes that landlords across the board do not offer significantly more flexibility in leases to tenants than they did three years ago.
Speaking at the EG/RICS Five Counties conference in High Wycombe on Thursday, Slough chief executive Ian Coull urged landlords to work closely with occupiers to avoid legislation.
“The report does not make good reading and I think we are going to face legislation.
“This will be as catastrophic for occupiers as for landlords. We need to understand our customers’ needs and remedy any problems,” he warned.
References: EGi News 09/02/04
