MORNING NEWS: Social Hub hunts for obsolete offices

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers. The Social Hub, a hybrid living developer and operator whose sites combine student accommodation, hotels and co-working, aims to spend some £250m on growing its UK portfolio from a single site in Scotland. Charlie MacGregor, founder and chief executive, told EG the company wants up to five schemes in the UK with roughly 500 rooms per project. It is searching for 150,000-200,000 sq ft of distressed office sites with potential for redevelopment in cities including Edinburgh, Manchester and London. Housebuilder Bellway has made two rejected offers for struggling rival Crest Nicholson, the latest valuing the target at £650m.  Crest Nicholson, which yesterday issued a profit warning, said the approach “significantly undervalued Crest Nicholson and its future standalone prospects and was not in the best interests of Crest Nicholson’s shareholders”. Bellway now has until 11 July to make a firm offer. The Labour Party has vowed to replace England’s business rates system and change planning laws to speed up development in its election manifesto. The party promised to scrap rates to “level the playing field between the high street and online giants, better incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship”. Leader Sir Keir Starmer pledged to make planning changes to “forge ahead” with infrastructure, and make major projects “faster and cheaper by slashing red tape”. The national planning policy would be updated to speed up development for laboratories, digital infrastructure and gigafactories. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: The Social Hub to spend £250m on distressed office dealsHarworth on track for £190m Yorkshire industrial schemeBellway makes moves for rival Crest NicholsonRepurposing old offices – where do we start?Date set for votes on controversial London office towersDrum plans 391-home resi tower in LeedsBirmingham’s £1.9bn Smithfield scheme approvedRegal appoints LSH to manage Clarendon schemes in WatfordVistry joins Citra Living to deliver Cambridgeshire homesPlans filed for £800m redevelopment of Poplar’s Teviot EstateAllsop releases bumper 347-lot residential auction catalogueClearbell fills Maidstone’s LOC8 industrial estateLabour vows to scrap business rates in manifestoCubo first to snap up WeWork site with Manchester acquisitionSpitalfields educational block up for grabsLinden Hill files plans for Birmingham office-to-PBSA schemeRedevco hires investment management head from AbrdnCity & Country acquires 177-acre Stansted siteUndemocratic, anachronistic, fantastic. How the City survives (£)UK house prices set to stagnate in 2024 (£)Wolseley restaurant group owner calls in restructuring advisers (£)Fuller’s gets a boost in trade from workers’ return to the office (£)