Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG as well as a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
British Land has appointed CBRE to find buyers for the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield, with an asking price of £750m.
Birmingham City Council could be forced to sell hundreds of assets when it is put into special measures. Commissioners are set to be appointed this week.
The number of pubs being demolished or converted for other uses has risen by more than 50%. As many were demolished in the first half of this year as in the whole of last year.
The chief executive of Frasers Group has described the business rates regime as “a disaster”. Michael Murray said: “It makes it almost unviable. You’re almost paying rent twice.”
And WeWork’s UK landlords face an uncertain legal future. Will it be a Prezzo-style rent-slash, a Wilko-style insolvency or a Fitness First-esque restructuring?
What’s the Matter? Retail and leisure agents Raven Rose and Stonebrook London have merged to form a new niche agency, called Matter London.
And The Times (£) has an interview with the Crown Estate’s Dan Labbad. “[My five-year-old daughter] thinks I get up in the morning, push the button to turn the wind farms on, have lunch, then turn them off in the afternoon and come home.”
Residential rents across Britain are rising at their fastest rate on record, up 29% since the start of the pandemic.
And the government is making the housing crisis worse, according to Churchill Retirement Living’s chair, with its “persistently negative stance”.
And, further afield, Evergrande’s woes have become even worse, after police in southern China arrested staff at its wealth management arm.
