Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG, as well as a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
Sir Keir Starmer has declared himself a “Yimby”, saying the need for development would outweigh local objections. Meanwhile, former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke has voiced concerns that Labour has stolen a march on the government with its plans for the built environment. “The risk is Keir Starmer comprehensively outflanks us,” he said.
But the scale of Labour’s flagship £28bn “green prosperity plan” has been cut further, by as much as £8bn a year. Apparently, existing commitments will now be included in the total figure.
Still, the party conference season is over, and a clear gulf has opened between the two main parties. The prime minister has drawn scorn from the industry over his net zero U-turn and scrapping of HS2 North, while the Labour leader has declared himself a Yimby. As property tries once again to make its voice heard before a general election, EG’s editor asks: “Has one party opened the door while the other has pulled it to?”
In other news, the London Borough of Sutton has hired Montagu Evans to find a development partner for a £500m regeneration of its town centre. The 10-acre project will deliver around 1,000 homes, 180,000 sq ft of commercial space and a new civic hub.
London, Manchester and Edinburgh have the biggest growth potential for co-living accommodation in the UK, according to analysis from Cushman & Wakefield.
Social infrastructure specialist Newcore Capital has bought four properties for around £20m.
And Feldberg Capital has launched a £500m fund targeting “brown to green” office investments in London.
While a fall in funding has delayed growth among life science occupiers.
Next is poised to buy FatFace, which has more than 180 UK stores, in a £100m deal.
The Financial Conduct Authority has publicly censured London Capital & Finance for “unfair and misleading financial promotions” of minibonds, but stopped short of issuing any fines.
Builders merchant Travis Perkins has issued a profit warning as construction continues to slow.
A hoped-for autumn bounce in the housing market has failed to materialise, RICS members have reported.
And house prices have fallen by 13.4% from their March 2022 peak, once you factor in inflation, says Savills.
Waiting lists for allotments have almost doubled in the past 12 years. Around 170,000 people are currently trying to find a plot.
And finally, while much of what Starmer laid out in his conference speech was welcome, it can’t be denied that most was a retread of old ideas. A pledge for 1.5m homes in five years is simply the 300,000 homes a year target cut a different way. New towns are old news and development corporations were set up by Michael Heseltine. But building on “ridiculous” bits of the green belt is novel. The only Labour politician to propose that was the gloriously gaff-prone deputy PM John Prescott. In 1998 he told the BBC: “The green belt is a Labour achievement and we intend to build on it!” But while he meant that he would expand it, Starmer the Yimby actually wants to build on it.
