MORNING NEWS: Rayner green lights M&S Oxford Street

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals, all perfectly curated to set you up for the day ahead. Angela Rayner has approved Marks & Spencer’s long-running battle to redevelop its Oxford Street shop. The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government has approved the development on appeal, overturning a decision by predecessor Michael Gove and upholding a High Court decision. M&S boss Stuart Machin said the firm could “now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street through a flagship M&S store and office space”. He added:“We share the government’s ambition to breathe the life back into our cities and towns and are pleased to see they are serious about getting Britain building and growing. We will now move as fast as we can.” SAVE Heritage was less enthusiastic, of course. Director Henrietta Billings labelled the decision a “missed opportunity”. “The government has chosen the easy option – business as usual – when it had a real chance to show leadership and ambition on this urgent issue,” she said. “Our old, wasteful knock-it-down-and-start-again model is broken.  Rayner’s green lighting of M&S’s plans came as prime minister Keir Starmer outlined the government’s Plan for Change programme in which it reiterated its promise to deliver 1.5m new homes during this parliament and pledged to decide on at least 150 major infrastructure projects. It said the promises would “unleash” the biggest building boom in half a century. Hoping to be able to capitalise on that is housebuilder Berkeley, which this morning unveiled a new 10-year strategy that will see it invest billions trying to grow the build-to-rent platform it launched in the summer. Chief executive Rob Perrins believes BTR will be key in enabling the government to achieve its 1.5m new homes target. And if you’re after a big read today, why not sit down with the latest EG Interview in which EG’s Akanksha Soni chats with Empiric boss Duncan Garrood to find out how “horizontal expansion” is key to its success. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: Berkeley plans BTR push with new 10-year planEG Interview: Empiric boss on lessons learntLabour promises to unleash biggest building boom in 50 yearsAverage office occupancy steadies at 35%Redevco makes UK retail park debut with £520m Oxford Properties portfolio buyRayner gives M&S redevelopment the go-aheadNew leads appointed at CBRE IMAllsop offers 11 lots guided above £1m at end-of-year resi saleHomes England delivery figures riseHelical offloads Chiswick’s Power HouseStockport MDC and ECF put in plans for town centre rebootUnite acquires Glasgow site for 934-bed PBSA schemeOxford Trust finds new home at Blue Boar CourtLRC bags BTR portfolio for £120mTrafford tops list of places to plug into EV chargersFrasers warns on profits and falls out of FTSE 100 (£)UK’s largest estates pay an average of £9m in inheritance tax (£)