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 week ahead.
It was no change at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities over the weekend as new prime minister Sir Keir Starmer followed up his retention of Angela Rayner as secretary of state for levelling up and deputy prime minister, with several other high-profile ministerial appointments.
Shadow positions across the housing and regeneration brief became “in power” positions.
Matthew Pennycook’s retention of the housing brief was welcomed by the industry, bringing some stability to a position that has seen 16 different ministers in 14 years. Pennycook has held the shadow housing minister position since December 2021.
Pennycook, MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, said the appointment was a “real honour”.
“Tackling the housing crisis and boosting economic growth is integral to national renewal,” said Pennycook. “Time to get to work.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, welcomed the appointment.
“It’s great to see him appointed after shadowing the role for a substantial period and he has really got to know the issues,” said Leech. “It is critical for the government to hit the ground running on the economy and deliver homes. We look forward to working with and supporting the minister in his new role.”
Jackie Sadek, regeneration expert and chair of EG’s Public Sector Forum, this morning lays out her expectations from the new government, urging the new PM to “remain ruthless and vigilant”. She credits Starmer with making an “energetic start” and putting stability in place.
Outside of politics, British Land and AustralianSuper have teamed up with King’s College London to establish a science and technology innovation campus at Canada Water, the 53-acre project the pair are developing.
A five-year MoU will see the partners work together to deliver a series of events at the scheme, provide technical services to occupiers and share research and analysis.
Elsewhere the living sector continues to boom.
In Sheffield, Lloyds-backed Housing Growth Partnership has teamed up with Torsion to deliver a £53m build-to-rent scheme, while in Woolwich, south-east London, Q Investment Partners has formed a £100m joint venture with Malaysian developer Gamuda to deliver a 299-bed purpose-built student accommodation project. The development will be the first of a series for the jv, said QIP chief executive Peter Young.
“We are targeting further UK PBSA opportunities with Gamuda as part of our respective larger strategy in the sector,” he said. QIP wants to deliver more than 2,000 beds across the UK’s prime university cities.
And Unite this morning delivered an upbeat trading update, showing rental growth driven valuation increases and strong demand for its properties.
Chief executive Joe Lister said: “Student demand remains strong from both domestic and international students, reflecting the continued appeal of UK higher education, our fixed-priced, all-inclusive offer and the growing shortage of high-quality student homes. Together with our alignment to the UK’s strongest universities, this supports stronger rental growth for the 2024/25 academic year and underpins growth in our property valuations.
He added: “We have also made further progress with the delivery of our record development pipeline, with significant planning milestones in Glasgow and Newcastle. These projects will deliver much needed new student homes in some of the UK’s strongest university cities.”
And finally, if you’re looking for insights on where to develop or invest EG has the perfect tool for you. Today we launch the first of our monthly demand barometers. Utilising unique data from EG’s PropertyLink listings service, we are able to crunch the numbers and tell you just what occupiers want. Every month we will provide you insights on where occupiers are targeting for expansion up and down the country and what sectors are most in demand.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
Unite sees rental growth amid international demand
British Land teams up with King’s for Canada Water science campus
Demand Barometer: Understanding what occupiers want
QIP signs £100m JV with Malaysian developer for PBSA push
Ruthless leadership and energetic starts: What to expect from the new PM
Who’s who in Labour’s Levelling Up department
HGP teams up with Torsion for £53m Sheffield BTR project
Celebrity-backed sports bar plans get nod
Wales industrial take up doubles
COMMENT Transitional lending : Funding clients’ brown-to-green strategies
Clowes buys major development site after seven year wait
Labour will ease building rules and fight ‘nimbys’, vows Reeves (£)
Rachel Reeves to bring back housebuilding targets (£)
Taylor Wimpey drops out of Cala Homes bidding war (£)
HMRC settles £141m Delancey-EY high court battle (£)
Former Tory minister may become Labour’s ‘planning tsar’
Labour to set out details of planning system overhaul (£)
Burberry prepares to axe hundreds of jobs as profits shrink (£)
All change: Prime minister Keir Starmer’s property portfolio
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