Brace yourself Manchester: mayor Andy Burnham is promising a “much more interventionist approach” to dealing with developers.
Burnham is readying to use CPO powers to move away from developer-led development, buy out bad landlords, redirect the Manchester housing fund and rewrite the Manchester spatial framework.
His goal of course is to deliver more housing by harnessing the city region’s devolution deal, the most power-shifting in England.
He sees housing policy as too national, a charge which could legitimately be levelled at many policies that affect the built environment. But he also sees a system which places too great an emphasis on where developers want to build and not where they should build for place making.
So far, so fear-inducing.
But in terms of the outcomes he is looking to secure, it is harder to fault his ambitions.
Burnham, ranked ninth in this year’s EG Power List, wants to see greater city-centre, high-density development linked to transport and affordable to people in their 20s and 30s. His rewriting of the spatial and planning framework is not to be “anti-developer”, but secure developments “that are sustainable for communities”. In doing so he will use his powers “to make it easier for developers to bring forward sites that may look too complicated”.
Those are ambitions that few would dispute.
With Liverpool’s new housing company looking to build 5,000 homes over 10 years in the city, and Westminster Council leader Nickie Aitken determined to deliver a broader range of housing in the central London borough, the public sector is changing its thinking on housing delivery. It requires the private sector to change its approach and model too.
■ With this month’s political omnishambles piling uncertainty upon Brexit-induced uncertainty, Q2 leasing figures will surprise.
Some 4.8m sq ft of central London space has been let so far this year, compared with 4.4m sq ft in the first half of 2016.
OK, in the months leading up to last June’s referendum, caution was spreading. Yet the 2.6m sq ft let in Q2 2017 is little short of the 2.7m sq ft five-year central London quarterly average.
Of course, the market could slow. Yet Cushman & Wakefield, which compiled the figures, estimates that there is around 3.2m sq ft currently under offer across central London. And with the seemingly resilient markets of media & tech and flexible offices accounting for more than half of all space let in central London during Q2, perhaps there will be no hard landing.
Let’s take good news wherever we can find it.
■ Propco remuneration committees have been doing their job, you’ll be pleased to hear, ensuring that chief executive remuneration reflects corporate performance.
Analysis by EG this week shows chief executive bonuses fell by 21% last year as total shareholder returns for the sector turned negative. Overall, the heads of 24 FTSE main market property investment and development companies received 61% of the maximum annual award for which they were eligible – down from 80% the year before.
Should they have fallen further? Perhaps in some cases. Yet there is truth in the argument put forward by remuneration committees that missing financial targets was more a product of general market volatility than it was of individual performance.
Some – private developers, especially – will say that risk and reward in the listed sector are out of kilter. But this year it seems remcos are doing their core job: ensuring that reward reflects performance.
To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@egi.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
