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.
There is no more time to kick the can down the road on climate change, EG’s editor writes. The recent rallying cries from the RICS president elect and UKGBC’s chief executive must be heeded, or there will be no built environment, no profit to take. “If we don’t act, there will be nothing left. Not you, not me, not your clients, no one.”
Meanwhile, the Muddy Waters hedge fund has revealed a short-selling bet against Blackstone’s $22bn mortgage REIT. “There is a lot of rot in its book,” says Muddy Waters CIO Carson Block. Blackstone Mortgage Trust said the report was “highly misleading”.
Wiredscore’s Tom Redmayne is set to join flex space operator Industrious as managing director and head of Europe.
Michael Gove’s plans to cap ground rents risks leaving the government open to a multi-billion-pound compensation claim from institutional investors, as it would amount to the “expropriation” of more than £30bn of assets.
And housebuilding has slowed for the 12th month in a row.
In other news:
Korea’s MDM and Hana Securities secure £90m retail park refinancing
UK economy has ‘lost momentum’, says BCC
Coventry Building Society eyes Co-operative Bank takeover
Nationwide orders staff back to their desks
Dambusters base can be used to house asylum seekers
Planning rules are wrecking the economy, says Next’s Wolfson
The FT (£) looks at the struggles faced by CRE as it confronts the “comedown” from easy money
And ICYMI – Developers on planning fee rises: ‘Just take our money!’
