George Turner vs the secretary of state for communities and local government, the mayor of London, the London borough of Lambeth, Shell International Petroleum Company and Braeburn Estates comes to court on 16 December. Two days have been set aside for a judicial review of the process by which permission was granted for the redevelopment of the Shell Centre by Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar, joint owners of Braeburn Estates.
The pair are no doubt frustrated with George Turner, a local activist who has decided to risk about £5,000 on the challenge. Eric Pickles gave the go-ahead in June for the seven towers containing 500,000 sq ft of offices and 800-plus flats after a 12-day public inquiry last November. The judicial review has delayed a start by six months, costing millions. It has also delayed the £500m forward purchase of two of the office towers by Mike Hussey’s Almacantar.
Canary Wharf is pretty confident that the judge will quash Turner’s objections, centred on not meeting Lambeth’s 40% affordable housing target. But there are nagging worries. Turner is not bonkers. “He is level-headed and puts a very convincing case,” said one who has met the man and read his 30-page legal submission. Turner also tells some uncomfortable home truths those in the development sector occasionally need to hear.
“Developments should only be approved if they meet the local development plan… yet what happens is you have an army of highly paid consultants rolling into planning committees telling us all that the plan is an unobtainable dream.” True enough. Carnivore consultants tend to easily crunch the affordable home numbers nervously suggested by herbivore planners. That’s why they get paid £1,000 per day instead of the £100 per day public sector planners earn.
“My experience of the last few years of campaigning is that no amount of reasoning, rational argument or evidence can persuade the planners,” says Turner. “The bureaucracy demands development. Of any kind, of any size, in any place. The rules will be twisted to get the right result,” he says, coming up with a dangerous suggestion. “What we need is a kind of Campaign for the Protection of Rural England for our cities.”
Number crunching
Investec deserve a free advert for being refreshingly frank on its loan terms during a visit last month. Debt specialists Mark Bladon and Haley Scott pitched plans to lend up to £500m in the coming year.
Here is the advert: Deal sizes considered between £10m and £100m. Interest charged: 5%-5.5%. Upper loan limit of 60% on development cost. A 1% arrangement fee – speedy service guaranteed. Finally, a 1% exit fee.
Downside? You must have a proven track record. Do not reveal you are desperate for the cash. They will run a mile. Make sure you can put in 30%-50% of the equity required. Oh… you may be forced to give personal guarantees. Anyone still interested?
Beneficial for landlords
The law of unintended consequences is working well with new rules that pay housing benefit to private tenants, rather than direct to landlords. The changes were introduced a year ago as part of social security reforms. Landlords thought the idea was very bad. Labour still thinks the idea is very bad, and plans to reverse it, if it gets back into power. Actually, the idea is proving very good for landlords. Therefore reversal will be very bad for tenants. Why? Landlords can kick out rent-controlled tenants who squander the rent money, then bring in new ones, who have to pay market rents. One big landlord has quietly admitted to becoming wickedly enriched by the process.
An early Christmas present
Congratulations are due to the retiring (in the “leaving” sense of the word) BPF chief executive Liz Peace. Howard de Walden Estate boss Toby Shannon will announce her recruitment to the board of the estate around Christmas, according to whispers at her leaving party last week.
