Good morning. Knock back that probiotic kale-shake and limber up – it’s time for the morning news.
The boss of JD Sports(£) has defended his decision to pay no rents, despite record sales and profits. Apparently what others may call “shifting the entire burden onto landlords so you can have your cake and eat it it” is mere rent realism(£) for the tenacious Peter Cowgill.
The Tenacity Group, meanwhile, has shown it has a firm grip on the environmental agenda with plans for a 31-storey tower at 55 Gracechurch Street, EC3.
Staying power is also a virtue for Hammerson and Shaftesbury, who led the pack downwards as the resurgence on the stock exchange ebbed away.
And while pubs and street food have been celebrating a threefold rise in spending(£), shops have been less fortunate.
Moorgarth is wise, then, to open a food market on the roof of its Waverley Mall in Edinburgh.
Although some are bucking the trend, with retail and resi landlord Thackeray Investments announcing it has collected 84% of its rents for Q3.
And there are some in retail who require no sympathy. Inditex billionaire Amancio Ortega(£), for example, who has built his personal property empire to €15.2bn over the last year.
Ministers must let go of “ideological” objections to council housing(£), if Britain is to build 300,000 homes a year, says Sir John Armitt.
Linkcity has completed deals with Grainger and One Housing for the £240m third phase of Hallsville Quarter scheme in Canning Town.
The Times (£) picks up on EG’s story yesterday about Network Rail’s Beeston pre-fabs.
Scotland has been urged to follow the rest of the UK and ban dangerous cladding(£).
And Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert(£) will retain 79% of the voting power after the US mortgage giant completes its IPO.
As three pubs shut their doors again(£) after customers tested positive for Covid-19…
… Whitbread is planning to have most of its pubs and hotels open by the end of the month. It anticipates a summer of seaside staycations(£).
Meanwhile, civil servants may well stay beside the seaside, under Lord Agnew’s plans to relocate Whitehall jobs(£).
City workers may well refuse to return to the office, after proving that working from home is working, says The Times (£)…
… While The FT (£) devotes an entire special report to the issue…
… And asks whether Facebook’s “salary by location”(£) plan could set a precedent.
Greystar’s Michaela Hancock is the first person to go for an actual dinner out, after a busy day in Lockdown diaries.
And finally, The FT (£) has shared with us all the phenomenon of the umarell. The chances are high that you will have seen one of these curious creatures. Perhaps you are one yourself? Umarell, it turns out, is a word taken from the Bolognese dialect, and literally translates as “little man”. But more specifically it is the type of man (always a man, apparently) who hovers near construction sites, hands behind his back, and occasionally offers unasked-for advice. So, rather like a politician, then.
