MORNING NEWS: The cities getting a fillip for flex

Good morning, and welcome to your Wednesday round-up of news, views and interviews from EG, plus some real estate-relevant stories from the papers. Companies are standing firm on flex, with co-working office occupancy rates across the UK holding strong at 80%, according to a new report from the Instant Group. But the report noted that demand is contingent upon the city, size of space and quality of product, with some locations seeing notable differences between city centre and out-of-town sites. Chanté Bohitige digs into the data here. Sticking with flex, WeWork’s woes continue. More than four months after EY quit as its auditor, the company has yet to find a replacement, and that means it has been unable to file its annual report with the SEC. The company has given no time scale for when it expects to fix either problem. Flex or not, the ESG credentials of offices are posing a conundrum to owners – specifically over the question of whether tenants are genuinely focused on them. The consensus from a panel at last week’s MIPIM conference was that smaller occupiers are generally not. “ESG is just not really on the radar [for most occupiers],” said Elliott Prosser at JP Morgan Asset Management. “Investors are putting an awful lot of money into buildings so that they can sell them, not so they can lease them.” All the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: The cities with the biggest flex take-upOffice owners grapple with whether ESG is ‘on the radar’ for tenantsFormer IPSX chief executive sets up advisory firmWeWork delays publishing annual reportNew Stockport transport hub to drive further regenUK commercial real estate needs a reset to avoid a debt trapDeveloper faces 12 years of bankruptcy restrictionsRegal London agrees Watford prelet with Epson UKPears family bags Yorkshire trading estateHundreds of jobs at risk as Ted Baker calls in administrators (£)Majestic Wine raises glass to purchase of stricken chain VagabondHold rates for now, says Times shadow MPC (£)Jeremy Hunt suggests general election will be held in October as speculation mounts over poll date (£)More than half of UK rented homes in areas with £1,000 a month average rent (£)UK brothers’ $30 billion empire built on debt Is showing cracks (£)Donald Trump claims he may need ‘fire sale’ to pay $464mn fraud judgement (£)