Good morning. Toast that bagel(£) and let’s get this week started.
The use of unexplained wealth orders(£) to seize properties linked to “McMafia” crime could be scrapped, after the NCA was handed a £1.5m legal bill.
Meanwhile, CBRE is at the centre of concerns over conflicts of interest, as the Case of the Undervalued Boomerang(£) continues…
And WeWork is on track to be profitable(£) in 2021, according to its exec chair.
In a welcome vote of confidence for both London offices and West End theatres, Travelex founder Sir Lloyd Dorfman has bought Derwent London’s Soho Place(£) for £40m.
John Lewis(£) looks set to follow Primark’s lead(£) and turn down the offer of £1000 for each retained member of staff.
The Times (£), meanwhile, takes a look at John Lewis’s decision to close the flagship Birmingham Grand Central store.
Footfall has failed to rise above 50% of last year(£), as post lockdown increases stalled.
Councils’ £6.6bn spending(£) on commercial property poses as great a risk as 2008’s exposure to Icelandic banks, the PAC has said. An estimated £624m income will be lost this year, causing many councils to slash budgets.
Epiris is in exclusive talks(£) with Alix Partners to buy the Casual Dining Group, as Itsu hires Alix for a potential CVA.
Bowling operators(£) are furious at being left out of plans to reopen leisure sites…
… While locals and green activists are concerned over the government’s plans for Ashford’s Mojo.
York is being “seriously” considered as a second centre of government(£), housing civil servants and even the House of Lords.
Ali Hewson, the activist and businesswoman also known as Bono’s wife, is objecting to the redevelopment of some tea rooms(£) at Killeney, near Dublin.
And finally, as yet another set of stats(£) shows that city-dwellers want to escape to the countryside, we have the perfect places to rest your eyes in shades of green. How about the Sawmills Recording Studio in Golant, Cornwall(£)? On the market with Strutt & Parker for £2.25m, it is a quiet riverside retreat only accessible on foot or by boat. Unless Oasis or Robert Plant come to record another album there, that is. Alternatively, for a taste of the rural, fans of the TV show Sex Education can now stay at the property(£) used as the home of the sex therapist played by Gillian Anderson. Although, we hear the decor of the real River Wye Chalet is not quite as stimulating…
