Good morning. This is your AM bulletin, packed with the latest news and views from EG, along with some of the more interesting pages from the daily papers.
The prime minister appears to be backing Michael Gove’s efforts to water down neutient neutrality rules that are blocking thousands of new homes. The levelling up secretary, who has been locked in a battle with environment secretary Thérèse Coffey over the rules, seems to have won the boss’s support.
But a new report has dismissed the flagship levelling-up agenda as mere “bullish, optimistic rhetoric”. The Fabian Society says 46% of net job growth since 2010 has been in London and the South East, with just 2% in the North East. It adds that the UK’s regional inequality was still “without parallel in the developed world” and getting worse.
And the government has been accused of attacking empty property rates relief in its latest plans to reform business rates.
In other news, Helical has been confirmed as TfL’s joint venture partner to deliver its commercial offices pipeline.
Casual dining group Loungers says it sees the potential for a further 600 sites across the UK. In fact, says chief executive Nick Collins, “600 is a conservative estimate”.
XPO Logistics has signed a prelet for Melburg Capital’s 210,000 sq ft logistics facility in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Thurstan Guthrie-Brown has left JLL’s central London investment team to join RX London as a partner. He was previously a partner at BH2.
And investment management firm Harrison Street has hired Alexis Gisselbrecht as managing director for portfolio management. He was previously a senior fund manager at AXA Investment Managers, and prior to that held senior roles at Patrizia and in BlackRock’s real assets group.
The company behind the Grand Theft Auto game series is considering legal action over a real estate redevelopment that it says will block light at its nearby London headquarters.
Plans to create a trial “hydrogen village” in Cheshire have been scrapped by ministers after opposition from residents.
Begbies Traynor has benefited again from the rising number of corporate insolvencies to deliver double-digit revenues and profit growth.
And rising mortgage rates are reaching a “tipping point”, beyond which switching to an interest-only deal will not soften the blow. Two-year deals reached 6.65% yesterday, passing the peak set after Liz Truss’s mini-budget.
And finally, talking of which, the former PM of 49 days is back in the public sphere. Truss has returned to offer her wisdom and insight into how to run the economy. The 13-member Growth Commission, convened by Truss, launches today with a 33-page opening report, condemning the UK’s falling GDP per capita, while ignoring the impact that Brexit and Truss’s own reign have had on that. It also calls for regulatory and competition reforms on tax, planning and trade.
