Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers.
London’s deputy mayor for business and growth, Howard Dawber, has championed the “heroic” role of real estate in the UK’s economy and called for it to be given more recognition.
“We believe it’s time to be celebrating London’s built environment professionals, from architects and developers to property agents to environmental consultants,” said former Canary Wharf director Dawber, speaking at the launch of a new London Property Alliance report. “You guys build everything people love, from the art galleries to the homes to workplaces. If it wasn’t for you, it wouldn’t happen.”
Dawber set an intention to collaborate with the industry and help it grow, with the aim of attracting young talent in the process.
“If you go into a school today and say, ‘Who wants to be a quantity surveyor?’, you won’t get a lot of people raising their hands. Most of them probably won’t know what it is,” he said. “And yet there are some amazing jobs and amazing careers there. So we want to inspire the next generation to get involved in the built environment.”
Amazing careers and a lot of work to do, not least in the capital. London mayor Sadiq Khan’s City Hall developer could help deliver 1,600 additional new homes over the next 10 years by bringing together land from across the city that will attract private sector investment, according to a report from campaign group BusinessLDN and the real estate team at PwC.
James Bailey, UK housing leader at PwC, added: “Increasing the supply of good quality, safe and affordable homes is integral to the ongoing success of London as a global and inclusive city. The challenging macroeconomic environment in recent years has exacerbated this need.
“Against that backdrop, [the] City Hall developer has the potential to offer a compelling opportunity for the GLA to collaborate with partners across the public and private sectors – including other developers and investors – to unlock land and accelerate the delivery of much-needed housing.”
In deal news, Brydell Partners has bought the North Bailey House office block in Oxford city centre from Lothbury Investment Management for £21.3m.
Plans are under way for a resi-focused rethink of a former glassworks site in St Helens, near Liverpool, while the owner of an “unproductive” 19,000 sq ft office block in Crawley wants to turn the site into a 28-bay electric vehicle charging hub.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
London’s deputy mayor: Time to celebrate the built environment
Barratt looks to better-than-expected full-year profit
Wetherspoon sells or surrenders 26 pubs
City Hall developer could boost London housing by 1,600 homes
Lothbury offloads Oxford office with record rents
Residential refocus planned for Merseyside glassworks
Lambert Smith Hampton lifts 29 in promotion round
Rayner loses ‘levelling up’ from department name
Revamped Kingsway office block signs first tenant
North Yorkshire retail and industrial hub up for grabs
Richard Simpson takes the podium at Olympian Homes
Crawley office-to-EV charging hub plans unveiled
Churchill Living acquires seven later living sites
Numa acquires UK aparthotel brand
Fifth State forms jv for resi-led Isle of Dogs redevelopment
Durham shopping centre set for major revamp
DWS’s Hardman quits for new venture with Downing
OakNorth backs Vabel’s £48m Queensway scheme
Final piece of Dorset neighbourhood gets go-ahead
Large London office buildings proving almost impossible to sell (£)
Labour’s new housing minister tried to block new homes in his constituency (£)
UK’s new £7bn National Wealth Fund to start green investment ‘immediately’ (£)
Loungers hits record revenues after opening 36 new bars (£)
FBI steps in as NYC real estate heirs face flood of disturbing sexual abuse
Nama was a once in a lifetime opportunity to fix the property market and we blew it (£)
Billionaire hotelier ‘sacked lawyer who blew whistle on alleged tax evasion’ (£)
Alain Roux’s Michelin-star restaurant plunges to a loss (£)
Retail veteran U-turns on Asda move as Mohsin Issa scrambles to overhaul management (£)
Send feedback to Tim Burke
Follow Estates Gazette
