Only 1 Week Left to Enter the Awards The Estates Gazette Awards are back to celebrate the best in the commercial property market, rewarding the success of companies both nationally and globally. The EG Awards judging panel is made up of industry leading experts who
18 May 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Education caterer Pabulum has gained 27 new contracts worth £15 million over the course of the past 12 months. Among the new business wins is the Tetherdown Consortium, which includes nine primary schools in the Borough of Haringey, North London.
Royal Dutch Shell is bracing for strike action on seven of its North Sea platforms in the biggest industrial dispute to hit UK oilfields for a decade. Workers for Wood Group, which provides maintenance services to Shell, voted on Wednesday in favour of strike action to protest against changes to
Despite having planning permission, millions of sq ft of shopping centre space in the UK will never be constructed due to the challenging retail environment, according to latest reports. Colliers International, a property consultancy firm, say that a drop in high street footfall along with a rise in online retail
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is to overhaul the ‘failed’ foreign home buyer deal. Established by his predecessor Boris Johnson two years ago, the ‘concordat’ secured the support of over 50 developers who promised to give local home buyers priority and stop the advertisement of homes to overseas buyers before
By Melanie Kendall-Reid, Compliance Director, CARBON2018 The referendum has been decided and the result is in. The UK is to leave the European Union after 43 years as members. This is the end of an era. The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community (as it then was) on 1
Comment from Rob Thompson, Head of Real Estate London at Irwin Mitchell Britain’s decision to leave the EU is monumental. However, property law is not heavily influenced by EU legislation and, therefore, Brexit will be a market issue, rather than a strictly legal one. In recent months, the press has
Only 1 Week Left to Enter the Awards The Estates Gazette Awards are back to celebrate the best in the commercial property market, rewarding the success of companies both nationally and globally. The EG Awards judging panel is made up of industry leading experts who get together to choose the most worthy winners across our 22 categories. Nothing celebrates success like an EG Award: it’s an accolade that makes staff, clients and rivals sit up and take notice, so enter now for your chance to be crowned a winner in this years awards. Entries are open for the 2016 Awards Entry deadline – Friday 1 April Exciting News for the EG Awards EG are proud to announce that we are now hosting the event at the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel, London at the earlier time of Tuesday 20 September 2016. Tickets are already on sale so book now to get a premium spot in the room. Dates for the diary 1 April – Entry deadline 16 & 17 May – Judging day 21 May – Shortlist revealed in Estates Gazette 20 September – Awards ceremony For sponsorship opportunities, contact Jonathan Lister Telephone: 020 7911 1757 Email: jonathan.lister@estatesgazette.com For any other enquiries, contact Carly McGowan Telephone: 020 8652 8845 Email: carly.mcgowan@estatesgazette.com Join in the Conversation#EGAwards16 Source link
18 May 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Education caterer Pabulum has gained 27 new contracts worth £15 million over the course of the past 12 months. Among the new business wins is the Tetherdown Consortium, which includes nine primary schools in the Borough of Haringey, North London. The new three-year contract is worth £3.3 million and it will see Pabulum catering for more than 3,300 pupils and staff. Pabulum uses 94 per cent fresh food in its offering, which it said helped it to secure the new contracts. Nelson Williams, Pabulum’s managing director, said: “We want to create a fresh food culture within schools, that’s why all our meals are produced on site, from scratch, using fresh, nutritionally balanced ingredients. We hope this will help inspire a lifelong love of fresh food in young people.” Pabulum’s primary offer includes a “Pabulum Dining Experience”, which features “a range of incremental service solutions and branding, which help make lunch-time enjoyable and interactive, as well as educational for children”. The company is also reducing white granulated sugar use across its entire business, which also resonated with leadership teams at many of the schools. Source link
Royal Dutch Shell is bracing for strike action on seven of its North Sea platforms in the biggest industrial dispute to hit UK oilfields for a decade. Workers for Wood Group, which provides maintenance services to Shell, voted on Wednesday in favour of strike action to protest against changes to pay and conditions. The dispute reflects growing tensions in industrial relations in the North Sea as companies struggle to keep the basin competitive in the face of declining production, high costs and low oil prices. Shell said it did not expect immediate disruption to production and was putting in place contingency measures to ensure essential maintenance could continue if the strike went ahead. Trade unions accused Shell of recruiting “scab labour” after advertisements appeared on job agency websites offering maintenance work on week-by-week contracts. Leaders of the Unite and RMT unions said their members had overwhelmingly backed strike action. Paul Goodfellow, head of Shell’s upstream business in the UK and Ireland, said he was disappointed by the vote and hoped that Wood Group and its employees could resolve their dispute without a walkout. “Our priority is to ensure that the safety of our people and assets will not be compromised during any industrial action,” he added. Dave Stewart, head of Wood Group’s eastern region, said the company wanted to reach an agreement with unions that “meets our mutual goal of safeguarding these jobs in the North Sea now and in the future”. Wood Group employees are facing an average reduction in base salaries of 3 per cent. FT Series Further coverage of the far-reaching implications of the protracted slump in oil prices Weak oil prices are expected to lead to the loss of about 120,000 jobs in the UK energy sector this year, according to Oil & Gas UK. Deirdre Michie, chief executive of the industry group, said: “Industrial action can only add to the industry’s challenges as it focuses on tackling the current downturn to restore North Sea competitiveness and sustain jobs in the industry in the longer term. “The changes we are making now to improve the efficiency of the sector will be critical to shaping the future of the industry and safeguarding the jobs it currently supports.” Source link
Despite having planning permission, millions of sq ft of shopping centre space in the UK will never be constructed due to the challenging retail environment, according to latest reports. Colliers International, a property consultancy firm, say that a drop in high street footfall along with a rise in online retail has meant that the cost of constructing or redeveloping many centres would exceed their value. The report found that over 10 million sq ft of expansions to existing shopping malls and new build centres due to be constructed over the next three years will no longer be completed. Colliers’ head of retail, Mark Phillipson, said that shopping centres normally take around 10 to 20 years to be put together, many of which reached the construction stage during the depths of the recession. He added that despite being in a much healthier financial position than in 2008, the retail market is still not in a good enough economic environment to build new shopping centres and that the only way new centres would be constructed is through a prolonged economic boom. Included in the report are some of the UK high street’s most high profile collapses in almost a decade, including BHS who said it would close after 88 years in business, with 164 stores to be closed down and 11,000 jobs lost. Also included was the closure of Austin Reed, the formal menswear retailer whose suits had been worn by celebrities and dignitaries, as analysts said the rising strength of online competition resulted in its demise. An independent retail analyst, Richard Hyman, said that over the last decade, online retail on its own has added the equivalent of 110m sq ft of trading space, which is approximately the same as 65 further Westfield London shopping malls. He added that the retail industry has been left massively oversupplied due to a rise in the supply of retailers but without increased demand to go with it.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is to overhaul the ‘failed’ foreign home buyer deal. Established by his predecessor Boris Johnson two years ago, the ‘concordat’ secured the support of over 50 developers who promised to give local home buyers priority and stop the advertisement of homes to overseas buyers before they went on sale in the London market. However, Mr Khan says that the concordat was lacking in any penalties or enforcement mechanism with just one developer ever found in breach of the rule. He said that this was “frankly embarrassing.” The London Mayor has now requested that officials come up with options to replace the concordat with a new programme that will be both meaningful and mindful of home builders’ needs to raise finance for projects. Mr Khan said that his predecessor Mr Johnson “left the cupboard bare” on London housing and that to fix the problem it will take a long and hard repair process. He added that the concordat scheme was supposed to help Londoners get the first chance to bid for new properties but claims that in reality it did not stop the problem of homes in London being sold to investors from overseas. Meanwhile, James Murray, Mr Khan’s deputy mayor for housing, said that he would review the housebuilding framework of the London Development Panel in a bid to create more opportunities for smaller builders, with the intention of publishing supplementary planning guidance on viability assessments. Mr Khan has also turned down planning permission for a Chislehurst development due to the fact that it would encroach on green belt land. The planning application from Flamingo Park put forward a three storey stadium for Cray Wanderers Football Club, along with 28 flats without affordable housing. The London Mayor insisted that he will not allow construction on London’s green belt land, which he says is more important now than when it was first created.
By Melanie Kendall-Reid, Compliance Director, CARBON2018 The referendum has been decided and the result is in. The UK is to leave the European Union after 43 years as members. This is the end of an era. The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community (as it then was) on 1 January 1973 with Denmark and Ireland having been vetoed on two previous occasions by the French Government. Its membership was controversial and the Labour party initially sought renegotiation of membership after which the British public participated in a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain part of the Community. This was duly held in 1975 with a 67% vote in favour of continued membership. Whilst the British public has spoken and the decision to leave the EU has been made, the path is far from straight forward. The referendum is merely the start of a two year process of negotiations and decisions. The UK has now to decide if it will join the European Economic Area (EEA), thereby remaining as associate members of the European Union or cut all ties with Europe – as far as it is possible to do so in a globalised world economy. If the UK decides to remain part of the European Economic Area (EEA), the huge progress that has been made to date in improving the UK environment could be lost in the absence of external pressure and auditing that membership of the union has brought. A total withdrawal is likely to bring a much wider erosion of environmental policy, which could be the intention the current Government and one which risks significant economic damage to the UK. It is possible however, for members of the EEA to follow EU environmental policies. Both Norway and Iceland, as non-EU members of the EEA, follow EU climate policy closely and participate in large parts without exerting significant influence on its development and direction. Norway participates in the EU ETS via its parallel trading system. Initially, it was only able to do so through a one-way voluntary acceptance of EU ETS allowances to meet its own trading system’s obligations, but joined fully in 2008, once the European Commission had accepted its proposals for a cap and allocation of allowances. Its participation in the ETS continues to allow it the flexibility of a wider carbon market; but it has no influence on the carbon price applied or the level of ambition set for the ETS. Iceland has less need of an emissions trading mechanism, since its domestic energy supply is 100% renewable; but has been part of the EU’s wider emissions target since the EU and Iceland jointly ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Its contribution to the Paris Agreement is aligned with the EU’s, although it had no voice in European Council discussions on the targets, and (like Norway with the ETS), its only choice in implementation is either to accept EU rules, or to comply separately without the flexibility allowed to member states. This would be the position of the UK if it now decides to become an EEA member outside the EU. Also, with regard to trading with its European counterparts, the UK will be subject to a wide range of EU laws it will now have little influence over their content. European environmental policies provide business opportunities to UK firms to become market leaders in the development of new technologies. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) suggested that green business accounted for 8% of GDP, a third of UK growth in 2011-2012 and could add a further £20 billion to the UK economy. The EU is our largest trading partner offering access to a larger marketplace and the opportunity to trade with other member states under favourable terms and conditions. Non-EU Members of the EEA enjoy preferential access to the Single European Market but do not participate in Justice and Home Affairs, Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, and the Common Fisheries Policy. In order to gain preferential access to the EU market they do have to abide by the acquis communautaire – the rules and regulations governing the operation of the single market, including many environmental rules. A total withdrawal with no EEA membership would lead to significant risk both rising energy costs and security of supply as the UK has a heavy dependence on European interconnectors. Predictions are that by 2030 the UK will be importing circa 75% of its gas. Events in the past two years have shown how important it is to keep suppliers onside with what has happened in Eastern Europe with Russia using its gas supplies through Gazprom as a tool of foreign policy. Before we joined the EU, Britain was seen as the dirty man of Europe In the period that the UK has been in the EU, the economy and environment has improved, albeit not entirely due to EU membership. For many years, Europe led the world in renewable energy investment but China has overtaken this. EU nations promoted clean energy at vastly inflated costs through imposed renewable energy targets, tariffs and subsidies. When budgets reached breaking point in 2011, European renewable energy investment slumped by more than half and has yet to recover. Some environmental policies are as a result of UK initiatives, Driven by concerns on carbon price, the UK unilaterally enacted the carbon floor price which is contributing to the closure of coal-fired power stations. The UK has also singly decided to phase out coal-fired power entirely by 2025. In coming decades, the planet faces an unprecedented challenge in the form of climate change and the only way to address it is through technological innovation and reduction of energy use. What is most worrying now the decision to Exit the EU has been made is that, in recent years, the UK government has shown a clear lack of commitment to driving down energy use, preferring to focus its attention on security of supply at any cost as demonstrated by the
Comment from Rob Thompson, Head of Real Estate London at Irwin Mitchell Britain’s decision to leave the EU is monumental. However, property law is not heavily influenced by EU legislation and, therefore, Brexit will be a market issue, rather than a strictly legal one. In recent months, the press has been awash with competing predictions about the impact of Brexit but the almost universal consensus of economists and property professionals is that leaving Europe will have an effect on transactional activity levels in the UK property market, at least in the short term. We are now entering an extended period of uncertainty whilst the government spends time negotiating its exit from Europe. The hope is that the UK can somehow negotiate the continued benefit of free trade whilst reducing its EU budgetary commitment and avoiding EU regulation and the requirements of the free movement of people. In short, the UK will be seeking a better deal than either the European Economic Area (as per Norway) or the European Free Trade Association (as per Switzerland) can offer. Sectors such as manufacturing, logistics and construction will also be concerned about the non-availability of foreign labour, on which they rely heavily. We have already seen a period of outflow from commercial property funds (February reportedly saw the largest monthly sell-off since 2008) and European banks, which hold a large volume of securitised debt, may start to divest themselves of some of this debt in response to Brexit. Overseas investor and developer confidence in the residential sector will also be affected and Brexit is likely to slow, if not stall, investment in new housing development and will probably disrupt the inflow of labour and materials to the UK. There are also broader economic questions around the effect of Brexit on currency markets and interest rates. These, too, will impact on the property market as much as any other. Many though are more optimistic and predict that, after a short term dip, the UK property market will thrive as trade is boosted due to the removal of import tariffs and the dumping of regulations. Opportunistic investors will no doubt look to take advantage of uncertain market conditions to extract greater value on acquisitions. On top of this, we should not lose sight of the fact that the UK is an incredibly resilient and adaptable economy and it is difficult to see how the City of London will not continue to remain as one of the leading financial centres of the world. The UK is also a major focal point for the technology industry and companies exposed to this sector are much less likely to be affected by the implications of Brexit. So all is not doom and gloom – the English legal system and the transparency of the UK property market will continue to be the envy of the world and it is difficult to see why international capital will not continue to find its way into the UK property market after an initial period of reflection and evaluation.
