Good morning.
Boris Johnson’s premiership has been dealt a devastating blow as the Conservatives lost by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton. The results show cracks widening in both the Red Wall that the party gained from Labour in 2019, and the Blue Wall strongholds it has held for the best part of a century. And they suggest that the levelling-up message is failing to cut through to voters as much as “partygate” and inaction over the cost of living crisis.
Meanwhile, the odds of the UK falling into a recession shortened yesterday as household confidence levels plunged to the lowest level on record.
In other news, 10 construction firms have been found to have illegally colluded to rig bids for £150m of contracts, according to provisional findings by the competition watchdog. The contracts for demolition services included work for Selfridges, Oxford University and the redevelopment of Bow Street magistrates’ court in central London.
Ping An has asked architects at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to imagine the Lloyd’s of London Building without Lloyd’s. Richard Rogers’ famous inside-out building could become a hotel if the insurance market exercises its 2026 break option.
Aviva Investors and Uttlesford District Council have lodged plans for a new 60,000 sq ft life sciences facility at Chesterford Research Park in Saffron Walden.
The value of Urban Logistics REIT’s portfolio of delivery hubs has doubled to more than £1bn as demand has boomed for warehouses.
Listen as EG is joined by CMS’s Eleanor Murray to explain what the government’s reforms of the private rental sector could mean for the industry.
Meanwhile, Airbnb has launched an £8m fund to build the world’s quirkiest holiday rentals to add to its 30,000-property OMG! category – which currently includes a giant potato and a Welsh UFO.
Perhaps Vladamir Putin’s “Fisherman’s Hut” could join the list? The Guardian took a look around the neighbours of the humbly-named getaway on Lake Lagoda, and concluded that the name is surely ironic. One neighbour’s “hut” has floors of Fior di Bosco marble and a private brewery.
But perhaps letting out your property isn’t such a good idea. Spectator editor James Forsyth writes in The Times (£) that buy-to-let landlords had better beware: Gove is coming for you.
Still, if you have a problem with unwanted guests, you could always send in the Special Forces. A team of ex-Paras and SAS have abseiled in to evict squatters from a conference venue in Bloomsbury.
And a Scottish castle has gone on the market for £1.25m after its former owner was evicted – but not by the SAS – after she refused to pay a £230 bill.
And finally, the government is always looking for ways to help first-time buyers onto the housing ladder, and is now desperate for a policy that will catch eyes and win votes. So how about this cunning wheeze to help with deposits? Instead of somehow saving tens of thousands of pounds as inflation soars and the cost of living crisis grows, you could pay your deposit… in garlic! The slumping property market in central China has led to some pretty innovative alternatives to cash deposits, with some developers accepting part-payment in garlic or wheat. Admittedly this may be more appropriate for the garlic and wheat farmers of central China, but the concept is sound. The signing-on incentive might be quite popular here too. I mean, who wouldn’t want a 220lbs pig?
