Redundancies timeline

Job cuts reported by Estates Gazette across the UK property industry January 2010  Developers Thornfield is to make around 25 posts redundant in London and Leeds as it hands over the management of its development pipeline, including Silver Hill in Winchester, to Hammerson Total redundant = 25 December 2009  Agency DTZ is selling its Scottish residential business and disbanding its UK residential lettings team as part of an overhaul that will lead to 20 staff leaving the firm. Retail More than 1,000 Borders staff were sacked on Christmas Eve after administrators said a buyer had not been found for the book chain, which includes Books Etc. Its 45 UK stores will close on 22 December, with staff finishing work two days later. Total redundant = 1,020 November 2009  Retail Administrators of First Quench, Threshers’ owner, announces the loss of more than 2,000 jobs Total redundant = 2,000 October 2009  Agents Countrywide Surveyors begins a nationwide redundancy consultation with its 450 staff. The surveying arm expects to make up to 50 roles redundant Property services The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) has vowed to campaign against the loss of up to 1,500 jobs and the closure of five offices at the Land Registry as part of moves to save £92m a year Developers Dutch Property Group BAM is in consultation with senior regional staff with a view to closing its regional offices in Birmingham and Leeds. The group has entered into a consultation stage with four members of staff and we are considering some redundancies Industrial REIT SEGRO says almost 40% of staff are to lose their jobs following its takeover of Brixton. The merged firm – which employs 225 UK staff – is to make 90 positions redundant Retail Eighty-one staff in the head office of Threshers owner First Quench Retailing have been made redundant following the retailer’s collapse into administration Wine Cellar has the bulk of its 170 off-licence and convenience stores sold in a pre-pack administration. It has sold the stock and 109 stores to EFB Retail, making 320 employees redundant Total redundant = 2,045 September 2009  Agencies  DTZ announces its fifth round of job cuts in the past 16 months with consultation talks on a further 100 UK posts Edward Jones, head of investment in Lambert Smith Hampton’s Birmingham office, is made redundant Law firm Eversheds announces that it is entering a redundancy consultation affecting up to 22 fee earners in its real estate practice Property funds and investment vehicles ING Real Estate Investment Management’s Sarah Slater, director of fund management, and Sarah Hayward, director of development, are being made redundant as part of a cost review Retailers Outdoor retail specialist Blacks Leisure plans to put itself through a company voluntary arrangement in an attempt to secure its survival – the last-ditch rescue deal would see put approximately 400 UK jobs at risk Total redundant = 525   August 2009  No redundancies were reported on EGi in August, however, about 850 retail jobs are to be lost with the closure of 142 Allied Carpet stores after its administrators failed to find buyers for the rump of Britain’s second-biggest flooring retailer Total redundant = 0   July 2009  Agencies Cushman & Wakefield is consulting with a total of eight staff in its 23-strong planning and environment team over possible redundancies. Consultation was scheduled to end on 24 July Developers Thirty-one of Birmingham developer Concept’s 33-strong workforce have been made redundant as well as all of Old House Holdings’ 18 staff Total redundant = 57   June 2009  Leisure Hotel chain Accor seeks voluntary redundancies from 10% of its group head office and its Hôtellerie France head office. It calls for 230 redundancies out of approximately 2,300 employees Total redundant = 230   May 2009  Developer McKay Securities development director Steven Morrice is made redundant Property lenders Eurohypo to restructure its business to focus on core property lending markets. Around 390 posts, representing a third of staff involved in property finance, will be lost, with most shed in Germany. No jobs in the UK will be affected Total redundant = 1 April 2009  Agencies DTZ has announced plans to cut a further 130 jobs across the business and has asked all UK directors and associates to consider a voluntary temporary pay cut in a bid to reign in redundancies at the firm. Drivers Jonas is to make as many as 30 staff redundant Knight Frank is to scale back its four-strong team in London’s Docklands. Property lenders The 9,000 jobs Royal Bank of Scotland is cutting across the globe includes roles in managing group property. Total redundant = 180     March 2009  Agencies Drivers Jonas is to make up to 30 of its staff redundant. DTZ is likely to make more job cuts than previously thought after revealing that losses will be worse than expected for the year to April 2009. Planner Turley Associates has made 25 of its 180-strong workforce redundant. Savills has said it plans to make further redundancies in 2009 as part of a bid to shave £20m from expenses. Industry bodies RICS to freeze the salaries of its 569 staff members and make up to 18 positions redundant. Developers Tesco is also about to axe 30 jobs in its property division and 12 from its acquisition team. Property funds and investment vehicles Brixton chief executive Tim Wheeler is forced out of the company. Architects Lord Rogers’ architectural practice is shedding 35 jobs, or a quarter of its staff. Total redundant = 231     February 2009 Agency Strutt & Parker makes five of its 20-strong office and industrial agency team redundant DTZ cuts four directors in its latest round of consultations Property fund and investment vehicles Fund manager Prupim makes up to 20 UK positions redundant as a result of the property downturn Simon Cooke, the managing director of Close Brothers Investment, is made redundant ING Wholesale Bank makes its new property derivatives team redundant only four months after hiring them ING Real Estate to cut the equivalent of 30 full-time jobs in the Dutch part of the firm UBS to close its real estate fixed-income division as part of a fourth round of job cuts Chris Jolly, one of property’s best-known investment bankers, has left Merrill Lynch after the company was taken over by Bank of America. The position has been made redundant Developers Whitbread is also in consultation to make nearly half of its UK acquisitions team redundant. It is cutting the team from 12 to seven following a review. Architects Lord Foster plans to lay off almost 350 employees Total redundant = 421     January 2009 Housebuilders Bovis Homes announces it is axing a further 200 staff, and its final dividend, as it struggles in the stalled housing market Agency DTZ is to make up to a 100 jobs redundant in the UK, in a further round of cuts Cushman & Wakefield to make up to 80 staff redundant from its UK operations over the next two months. The cuts will affect mostly transactional departments Colliers CRE said it had entered into consultation on 70 redundancies, as part of cost-cutting measures Strutt & Parker is reviewing its 170-strong commercial business, in a move that will lead to a number of redundancies across the UK business. The privately owned firm expects to cut 15 jobs by the end of the month. This week, the agent also announced that it has closed its six-strong Reading office Property fund and investment companies The majority of staff at retail warehouse fund The Junction are made redundant  – equating to around 20 people from a 25-strong team. Capital & Regional says it has made a “number” of redundancies Total redundant = 565 December 2008 Developers A strategic review of operations at Rugby Estates will apparently lead to eight people losing their jobs before the year end Australian shopping centre giant Westfield enters consultation with employees over potential job cuts – the figure is thought to account for around 100 of its 700 staff in the UK Land Securities confirms that it is in redundancy consultation with 11 staff from its 50-strong retail development team Brookfield, the Canadian company that took over developer and contractor Multiplex in a £3.1bn deal in the summer, is set to cut up to 17 posts – the majority of which are from its development team – are understood to be under threat The development team at Liberty International dwindles further with Mike McGuinness departure Agency Knight Frank announces the redundancies of between 15 and 20 of its 70 UK graduates King Sturge warn staff that it may need to make between 60 and 80 redundancies over the next two months Property funds and investment companies ING Real Estate Investment Management to lay off around 32 staff, around 20% of its UK workforce Total redundant = 269 November 2008 Housebuilders Aberdeen-based housebuilder and developer Stewart Milne announces a further 44 redundancies across its UK business Developers Clive Perrin, the North West regional director at developer BAM Properties – formerly HBG Properties – has entered consultation with the firm over redundancy Unite begins consultation with staff over potential redundancies and announces it is likely to reduce its in-house development resource as a result of the decision to scale back its development commitments for 2010 and beyond Quoted property company Liberty International cuts eight of its 12-strong development team ProLogis is to make up to 20% of its 1,500-strong worldwide workforce redundant Agency GVA Grimley announces it is to cut up to 40 jobs from its offices in London’s West End and in Birmingham Jones Lang LaSalle confirms it is to make a further 30 to 40 employees based in England redundant Property funds and investment companies Barclays Capital European real estate finance team all but closes after a further round of senior job layoffs Run by acting head Brendan Jarvis, the team is now down to 15 staff, from 85 before the credit squeeze. Paul Dittman, a director responsible for expanding the bank’s continental European platform, is among the departures Total redundant = 253 October 2008 Housebuilders Deloitte has announces 134 redundancies in housebuilder David McLean Holding’s contracting division, David McLean Contractors Developers Artisan confirms there will be staff cuts Agency Liverpool residential and commercial agency firm Venmore Partnership has made “several redundancies” About 80 people at Rightmove are to lose their jobs UK agent King Sturge makes more than 20 staff redundant at its French and German offices and reviews its Spanish operations Ten DTZ employees from its northern offices are to be made redundant CB Richard Ellis tells staff that it is to cut up to 70 London posts Property funds and investment companies Real estate bank Eurohypo revealed this week that up to 10 staff would be made redundant as part of a restructuring of its UK office. Icelandic bank Kaupthing’s UK team dwindles further, with four of the five-strong property team, including former CB Richard Ellis director Paul Forshaw, departing Total redundant = 348 September 2008 Housebuilders North West residential and mixed-use developer Urban Splash confirms it is to make redundancies following a sales slowdown in the first half of the year Developers SEGRO is to cut between 20 and 30 of its 250-strong UK workforce Agency Jones Lang LaSalle confirms it to make up to 80 of its staff members in England redundant Up to 100 DTZ employees are understood to have received notification that their jobs were being made redundant Property funds and investment companies Total redundant = 220 August 2008 Agency Barbers, one of the largest firms of independent chartered surveyors and estate agents covering Shropshire, Staffordshire and the Cheshire borders, makes 60 of its 100 staff redundant Property funds and investment companies Imagine Homes – the buy-to-let partnership between Grant Bovey and HBOS – has made almost a quarter of its workforce redundant Real estate law firm Staff at Field Fisher Waterhouse’s real estate team are at risk of redundancy Total redundant = 90 July 2008 Housebuilders Barratt Developments is to lay off 1,200 staff out of a total number of 6,700 employees Housebuilder Persimmon is expected to announce a cut of about 1000 jobs in trading update Taylor Wimpey announces 900 jobs to be culled Leisure Christie & Co becomes one of the first leisure agencies to cut jobs across its UK business Agency Atisreal is engaged in consultation over redundancies with several staff members following a review of the business. Developers Miller Developments – part of the privately owned Edinburgh-based Miller Group – begins a consultation that will lead to cuts in its 100-strong staff in Birmingham, Derby, London and Edinburgh Private Irish developer Ballymore announces that a restructuring would lead to “between 45 and 50 people” exiting the group this year Yorkshire-based estate agent Hunters makes around 80 staff redundant Total redundant = 3,290 June 2008 Developers Manchester-based Ask Developments confirms that three staff have been made redundant within its residential division Agency DTZ becomes the first of the large agents to announce significant redundancies. The agent told staff that 2.5% of its 1,800–strong UK workforce – about 50 people would be made redundant Property funds and investment companies Real estate bank Barclays Capital makes sweeping redundancies at its Canary Wharf-based European real estate finance and leveraged finance operations with around 80 in total axed Total redundant = 133 May 2008 Housebuilders North West housebuilder David McLean is to make 30 of its staff redundant. It said the redundancies across its housebuilding, development and contracting divisions were “unavoidable in the present climate” Agency Savills becomes the first of the major agencies to make a large number of redundancies – fourteen staff from the residential development sales team, led by Simon Grier-Jones, are made redundant The commercial auction team at Erinaceous is made redundant following the collapse of the property services firm on Monday Total redundant = 50 April 2008 Agency  Lambert Smith Hampton considers making national head of retail Michael Perkins and retail director Thomas Nulty redundant, as it conducts a review of its London retail team CB Richard Ellis makes Mark Rooke, former head of investment in Birmingham, redundant Property funds and investment companies One of the most active investors during the property boom, Quinlan Private, is making almost a dozen people redundant Real estate banks Royal Bank of Scotland and its newly purchased bank, ABN Amro, between them shed up to 100 property-related jobs Total redundant = 115 March 2008 Developers Supermarket giant Tesco announces it is to cut around 20 people from its 200-strong in-house property team and development arm, Spen Hill, as the result of an annual review of its workforce Total redundant = 20   February 2008 Real estate banks Credit Suisse has completed a further round of redundancies, approximately halving its London-based, 30-strong real estate lending team. Total redundant = 15   January 2008 Total redundant = 0