Good morning.
The Great Reopening continues today, as pubs and restaurants prepare to welcome punters inside and everyone hugs.
Meanwhile, London office completions have hit an 18-year high and new starts are ahead of expectations according to Deloitte’s latest London Office Crane Survey.
With fierce battles raging(£) over who gets to buy up what plot, there seems to be enormous confidence in the future of London offices. As long as they are the right sort.
A confident start for Mailbox REIT, too, as shares in the first company to list on the real estate-focused ISPX stock market ended the week up 4.5%.
Eddie Lister, the PM’s former adviser and former chair of Homes England, has apologised for being present at a meeting(£) which approved a £187m loan to Delancey. Lister is one of Delancey’s directors.
As the bars reopen, Rooney Anand, the former boss of Greene King, is eying up New River’s portfolio(£) of 700 pubs.
But while we are all celebrating that we can get a table inside again, is the long term future of restaurants(£) secure?
Top Tories have warned that their grip on the Home Counties may not be secure either. The grandees fear the planning reforms(£) could bulldoze the Blue Wall while trying to secure the Red Wall.
But let’s not forget why radical reform is needed, says The FT (£).
House prices(£) have risen by more than 10% in some regions, as the average soars above £330,000.
A fire(£) last week at a Canary Wharf residential block was minutes away from being another Grenfell Tower.
Meanwhile, relatives of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire have said they will fight plans to demolish the building.
Plans to extend Wimbledon’s tennis empire(£) have drawn fire from those who wish to preserve the Capability Brown-designed park.
And the price of an acre of woodland(£) has risen to £15,000 in some areas, as city folk seek a rural idyll.
A British start-up has won support for a giant “heat battery”(£) which could be used to make older homes greener.
It has been a challenging year, and that’s why we all need to celebrate. Have you entered the EG Awards 2021 yet?
You can also recap the week with the EG Like Sunday Morning podcast.
And there are more podcasts to come this week. Head here for the details.
It could be third time lucky as Blackstone looks to buy Extended Stay America(£). Again.
And apparently the Downing Street flat affair(£) was all some nameless civil servant’s fault, according to the latest line being peddled by the Number 10 spin class.
And finally, we got rather excited by Prince Charles’s plans to get the plebs into the Royal Palaces when he becomes king. The potential of “opening up of palaces and residences”(£) is enormous. Might we suggest a remote working hub in Balmoral? A retail-leisure destination at Windsor? Buckingham Palace and Clarence House to become affordable housing? Alas, nothing that ambitions is planned. He just thinks more people should be allowed to come and look at the rooms and gardens. Well, they are very nice.
