Good morning.
It is Groundhog Day today, so it seems fitting that the long-awaited, much-delayed levelling up white paper(£) will finally be unveiled. But while the blueprint stretches to 400 pages and includes plans for new mayors, legally binding targets and “innovation accelerators”, it won’t allocate any new money. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has said it will end “the postcode lottery”, while his shadow Lisa Nandy said it would merely “shuffle the deckchairs”.
The FT(£) says that if the government is serious about levelling up the UK, it needs to fix the planning system first. Haven’t we heard that before? It really is Groundhog Day!
MPs, meanwhile, have said the UK needs a single agency to tackle fraud(£) and economic crime, including London properties bought with suspect funds. The powers are currently split across several agencies and police forces.
Interest rates must rise tomorrow, says The Times (£). The only question is by how much.
And house prices(£) have made the strongest start to the year since 2005, rising by 0.8% in January.
Family-owned academic bookseller Blackwell’s(£) has been put up for sale for the first time in its 143-year history.
And in the US, San Francisco(£) is looking to force property speculators to let out their resi assets by introducing a new tax on empty properties.
Just six of the 109 affordable homes built by Brad Pitt(£) in New Orleans are fit to live in. The rest appear to be suffering from mold, rot and structural issues.
And finally, Donald Trump has raised more than $100m to spend during the US midterm elections. The property baron and former president has $105.4m in the Save America Pac, the fund which he launched after he lost the 2020 election. But other Pacs associated with Trump have also been raking in the donations. A spokesperson for Trump said he had raised $51m in the second half of last year, taking his total to $122m. The FT (£) has also run the numbers, but arrives at $143m. Not the first time Trump’s numbers haven’t quite tallied with others. The bad news for DJT is that he can’t use this money to fund his own political campaign, should he choose to run in 2024. The rules are very strict about that. However, the regulation is very lax in almost every other regard, meaning the “political slush fund” could be used to bankroll his rallies, payroll and even personal and business-related expenses. Trump should have done this years ago – as far as free money goes, it’s even better than inflation valuations!
