Good morning. Put your feet up, it’s Friday.
Robert Jenrick is facing the possibility of a parliamentary inquiry(£) over his links to Richard Desmond’s £1bn Westferry scheme. And now the PM has been implicated(£), too. Smell that? There’s blood in the water…
Allen keys at the ready! Ikea is set to put together its first UK housing development. The 700-home resi scheme will be assembled next to its flagship Tottenham store in north London.
REIT shares slumped yesterday, led by RDI REIT with a fall of 11.29%. Global stock markets(£) all went south following a dismal outlook for the US economy and fears of a second wave(£) of infections.
More than 470 UK infrastructure projects(£) worth over £6.5bn remain on hold because of the pandemic.
Native Land has made five senior promotions in its leadership team.
In the words of Segro’s Andrew Jones: “Buying cheap assets is fine, but buying good assets cheaply is better.” Get ready for an opportunistic spending spree, but don’t forget all that we’ve learned in lockdown.
Discount retailer B&M is planning to open even more stores(£), as it now views its planned expansion to 950 “a conservative estimate”(£).
Ocado may have just raised £1bn to spend on new warehouses, but it’s legal wrangles just get more tangled(£).
Poor Robert Jenrick now also faces a legal challenge(£), as flat owners attack the government’s dangerous cladding fund.
Unilever has opted to have its HQ in London(£), as it ditches its Anglo-Dutch dual structure(£).
The FT (£) takes a look at the science, politics and economics behind the move to cut the 2m social distancing rule in half.
Meanwhile, in mortgages, lenders have pulled low-deposit deals(£) amid fears of a “tidal-wave” of high-risk home loans…
… Lloyds Banking Group(£) has been fined £64m for being mean to its mortgage customers(£)…
… and mortgage giant Quicken Loans(£) has filed to list on the US stock market in what could be the year’s biggest IPO.
Also across the Atlantic, one of New York’s leading private schools(£) is following it’s client base to the Hamptons…
… LaGuardia airport will reopen tomorrow after its $4bn facelift(£)…
… And life can be tough when you own a $85m California mansion. Just ask Petra Ecclestone(£).
And finally, as any mediaeval home owner knows, if you want to keep people out of your castle you dig a moat. It turns out that to get them in you fill it with flowers. Historic Royal Palaces is planning to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee in 2022 by turning the moat of the Tower of London into a huge garden. It hopes that the ditch dug by Henry II to repel foreign invaders can be adapted to attract overseas tourists. History is all about change, after all.
