Planning reforms, including reserving a proportion of new build houses for British residents, would help to increase home building and promote home ownership, according to a new report. With the average first time buyer having to save for 10 years for a deposit and home ownership rates falling among the young, the report Homes for Everyone sets out detailed proposals for how to push house building up towards the Government’s target of 300,000 a year, and ensuring they go to first time buyers. The report, written by MP Chris Philp and published as part of the Centre for Policy Studies’ New Generation initiative, also features new research setting out the historic under supply of homes in the UK across regions, and makes the economic and social case for home ownership. It says that the gap between the number of new homes needed and the number being built each year now stands at 76,000 a year, an improvement on the figure of around 150,000 under the last Labour Government. Of these, some 40,000 per year are in London and another 10,000 each in the East and South-East. The cumulative housing shortage since 2000 has reached 343,000 in London and 96,000 in the South-East. It also says that over a 25 year period, a home owner will end up between £100,000 and £300,000 richer than a renter. Owning is more beneficial than renting even if you assume zero real house price growth and sky high investment returns on the money that would have been used for a deposit. It also claims that in London, the number of housing starts has gone backwards under current Mayor Sadiq Khan. There is also evidence that an increasing proportion of those homes that are being built are ending up in the hands of foreign buyers and not just in the prime areas of central London. While welcoming the Government’s work and progress, including the Chancellor’s recent stamp duty cuts for first time buyers, the report makes a series of proposals for speeding up the planning system and tilting its outcomes towards first time buyers. These include the merger of the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 requirement for developments under 100 homes, the removal of the affordable housing requirement for developments under 20 units and creation of so called Pink Zones in which development will be automatically approved within certain parameters. They also mention fast track planning approval and dispute resolution, speeding up the disposal of public land, strengthening the Government’s ability to act on housing issues and promoting staircasing agreements by which renters can gradually buy their homes over a period of years, at the initial price. The report also proposes that the UK should follow other developed economies, such as Switzerland, Australia, Canada and Denmark, in favouring domestic first time buyers, primarily by restricting to 50% the proportion of new build developments over 20 units that can be purchased by people who are not UK tax resident. ‘The Government has taken huge steps to increase home building from the low of 125,000 a year left behind by Labour to nearly 200,000 today. But more needs to be done. We need to place home ownership at the front of the policy agenda and make sure that first time buyers get all the support possible to get onto the housing ladder,’ said Chris Philp, MP for Croydon South. Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said housing is the biggest domestic policy challenge in the country and is blighting the lives of a generation of young people. ‘This new report by Chris Philp contains many ideas that deserve serious consideration if we are to make home ownership the norm for young people,’ he added.

An experienced property litigator has swapped the seaside for the steel city to strengthen the business legal services team at Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet LLP. Solicitor, Sarah Coates-Madden, has relocated from Hull to work with the firm’s litigation experts, providing advice to the region’s landlords and tenants. Having worked previously at Gosschalks in Hull, where she was recognised by The Legal 500 as a ‘sensible and pragmatic lawyer’, Sarah will continue to specialise in property litigation matters at Taylor&Emmet. She will also work closely with the firm’s conveyancing team to address queries such as boundary disputes and offer assistance on leasehold and enfranchisement issues. Sarah said: “Taylor&Emmet is known for its property work and provides excellent career opportunities in a large and vibrant city. I am enjoying meeting the area’s landlords, agents and homeowners and look forward to enhancing both my skill set and local knowledge as part of this busy, yet friendly team.” Richard Kay, Taylor&Emmet’s head of commercial property, added: “Sarah has proved herself to be a talented, tenacious litigator, handling cases for national leisure industry clients at her former firm. She is enthusiastic and keen to embrace local life and we have no doubt she will quickly establish herself as a sought-after adviser to the property sector.” For more information about Taylor&Emmet’s property litigation services, telephone (0114) 218 4000, visit www.tayloremmet.co.uk or follow the firm on Twitter, @tayloremmet.

Britain’s biggest construction contractor, Balfour Beatty, has published perhaps the gloomiest post-Brexit prognosis yet, saying that major infrastructure projects are now under threat. Above: The Manneken Pis is one of the most famous landmark in the EU’s capital, Brussels – and possibly a metaphor Among the concerns are continued access to labour and finance. It is particular keen for an early clear statement that all the construction workers from mainland Europe that are in the UK should be allowed to stay. According to Balfour Beatty, “uncertainty around the free movement of labour… may increase costs where demand for labour outstrips supply, with the subsequent risk of project delays”. It adds: “This will be particularly relevant for mega projects such as HS2 and the nuclear new build programme. “In our view, this requires an early and integrated policy response to both retain the skills of those who have migrated here and to ensure that the UK remains an attractive place for talented people to move to. The country must maintain its skills base.” The document, Infrastructure 2050, warns that private investment is likely to be slow while the UK’s exit from the EU is negotiated. It adds: “Longer term, the impact on private investment in infrastructure projects is unclear, but some investors are likely to postpone decisions to make investments until the UK-EU relationship is renegotiated. Given the long lead times for major infrastructure projects, this risks delaying some of the key planned projects.” It continues: “The impact on private investment in infrastructure is significant since, according to the National Infrastructure Pipeline, private finance dominates the UK’s planned infrastructure investment: 69% of financing is from the private sector (worth £260bn), whilst 19% is from the public sector (£73bn) and 12% is from mixed financing (£46bn). In order to attract private investment, the political and policy landscape have to be attractive and stable enough to maintain and even improve the UK’s position as a place for infrastructure investment.” There is also uncertainty about the implications of the UK’s exit from the European Investment Bank. Balfour Beatty notes: “The European Investment Bank (EIB) has invested £16bn in UK projects over the last three years, including the extension of the M8 motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and a £700m loan to the Thames Tideway Tunnel. At the moment, the UK is the joint largest shareholder in the EIB but will have to give up its equity upon leaving the EU, meaning that the UK will lose billions of pounds in infrastructure funding. This is likely to have an impact on some of the larger infrastructure projects such as Crossrail 2 and London Underground upgrades. It is unlikely that HM Treasury will be directly able to make up the amount in the short to medium term.” In short, new funding mechanisms need to be found, it says. There is, however, one optimistic note in the report. It says: “This could be an opportunity for the much talked about diversification of the economy away from financial services and back towards industries such as engineering, construction and manufacturing, as the UK may no longer be bound by single market rules which restrict a more active industrial policy. This, in turn, would support the rebalancing of the economy more evenly across the regions.” The document was written by Balfour Beatty head of public affairs Veena Hudson, who joined the company in July 2015 having previously been a senior special adviser to deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Infrastructure 2050 also discusses how infrastructure needs will change in key areas such as rail, roads and energy and makes some recommendations on how the UK can make the transition to autonomous vehicles, flood resistant infrastructure, a decarbonised energy market and skills training. The full report can be found at http://www.balfourbeatty.com/media/164183/infrastructure-2050.pdf       This article was published on 21 Jul 2016 (last updated on 21 Jul 2016). Source link

A round up of some of the week’s most significant corporate events and news stories. US investment banks widen lead over European rivals The decline of Europe’s investment banks was laid bare this week, as analysis by the Financial Times showed how dramatically they lagged behind their US peers last year, writes Laura Noonan. Revenues for the top five European investment banks were less than half of the $138.5bn made by their top five US rivals, their financial statements show. Pre-tax profits at the European groups’ investment banking and securities divisions were $4.2bn in 2015, a figure dwarfed by the $33.5bn the Americans earned. Experts agree that conditions favoured the US banks last year, as a rebounding American economy triggered a wave of M&A activity and fundraising that delivered a bounty of fees for Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. But the Americans had more than good fortune on their side — they are also reaping the rewards of reshaping their businesses earlier in the financial crisis, a process Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are only now getting stuck into. Leading executives at the European banks argue that their restructurings will make them “more focused” than US banks, helping them to claw back market share in areas such as advisory and capital markets. Credit Suisse is hiring more bankers for this — even as group chief executiveTidjane Thiam pursues annual cost savings of SFr2bn ($2bn) across the entire Credit Suisse businesses. UBS, which embarked on its major restructuring in 2012, is taking on more bankers in the US, and Deutsche Bank is targeting growth in its advisory and capital markets businesses. Still, the Americans are quietly confident of retaining their global crown. They now dominate the fees league tables even in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, so they are well-positioned to benefit from the long-awaited uptick in the European economy. Their sheer size and breadth allows them to serve clients right across the globe in a way that is increasingly impossible for the shrinking Europeans, giving them a powerful marketing unique selling point. ● Related Banking Weekly podcast: An ethical review, European investment banks shrink and the oil threat to US banks RWE and Eon feel the heat as groups report losses This week was another difficult one for European utilities, with the German companies Eon and RWE both reporting a slump in results, writes Kiran Stacey. RWE said on Tuesday that Npower, its UK business, had lost €137m last year and would shed 2,400 jobs — a fifth of its workforce. RWE blamed the loss on “serious process and system-related problems” in billing, which affected more than 500,000 customers between September 2013 and December 2014. Npower was fined a record £26m by Ofgem, the energy regulator, last year over its failure to treat customers fairly. RWE has been struggling with the same difficulties faced by other German power groups, whose profit margins at gas- and coal-fired plants have been squeezed as the government moves towards renewables. Peter Terium, RWE chief executive, said that with the German wholesale electricity price of about €20 per megawatt hour, coal and gas-fired power stations could not survive. “We cannot expect any lasting improvement in this dramatic situation in the foreseeable future,” he added. “There is no rapid recovery of wholesale electricity prices in sight.” Eon gave another indication of these problems on Wednesday, when it said it would write down the value of its coal and gas stations by €8.8bn. That led to the company’s biggest ever net loss of €7bn, more than double the €3.2bn loss recorded in 2014. Johannes Teyssen, the chief executive, said the downturn it faced would be “tougher and longer than anticipated”. Sharapova drug admission plays poorly with sponsors Maria Sharapova, the world’s highest earning female sports star, lost three key corporate sponsors this week but had one reconfirm its support, after the Russian tennis player admitted failing a drug test, writes John Murray Brown. ©Reuters Nike, the US sportswear group, said it was “saddened and surprised” and had decided to suspend its relationship after the former Wimbledon champion revealed she had tested positive for a banned substance following the Australian Open in January. TAG Heuer, the Swiss watch brand owned by luxury company LVMH, followed suit while Porsche, the German carmaker, said it would “postpone planned activities” with the player until further details were released. Head, the racket maker, said it planned to extend its contract, however, and commended as admirable “the honesty and courage she displayed in announcing and acknowledging her mistake”. Ms Sharapova receives more than $20m a year in endorsements, a figure that is six times larger than her 2015 winnings on court. The sponsorship deals give companies image rights and access to the star’s social media audience. The tennis player has more than 15m followers on Facebook and 2m on Twitter. But scandals have left sponsors nervous about the value of relationships with sports and athletes. Some commentators were surprised by the speed of the sponsors’ reaction, however, suggesting the scandal was being used to ditch a client, who earns huge fees but is a fading star on court. Ms Sharapova, who could face a four-year ban under the sport’s rules, said she had been taking the drug meldonium — under its alternative name, mildronate — for the past 10 years for health reasons and had not known it was banned. Meldonium was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances on January 1. ● Related Short View column: Signs of life behind the rouble G4S exits Israel as profits plunge and blunders build G4S is the biggest security company in the world but it still sets alarm bells ringing with surprising frequency — a record it added to this week as it announced a fall in profits, writes Gill Plimmer. The company mismanaged the guarding of the 2012 London Olympic Games and was later forced to admit it had charged the UK government

15 October 2016 – by David Hatcher HSBC Alternative Investments is in advanced talks to buy Brindleyplace in Birmingham in what would be the largest office deal in the city. The investment arm of HSBC’s private bank has agreed to buy five buildings at the complex from Lone Star and Hines Global REIT for £260m – a yield of 6%. A deal has been agreed in principle, although the assets are not formally under offer because HSBC is still speaking to clients in its wealth management division about bringing them into a club to make the investment. If completed, the deal would be a major boon to the UK regional markets as overseas investors look to take advantage of the relatively high yields on offer and the devaluation of sterling. For Birmingham it would also be a further boost, with confidence brimming at the prospect of HS2 becoming operational from 2026. Subscribe to Estates to read great articles like this every week. See options below. Source link

One of the world’s largest port developments has been equipped with modern offices in just 30 days using prefabricated units sourced from China. Jim Simpson reports Located south of the Qatari capital Doha, the US$7.4bn New Port Project (NPP) comprises the port itself plus a new base for the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces and a new industrial and residential development known as the Qatar Economic Zone 3. The project will cover an area of 26.5km2. The port is being built in three phases, the first having a capacity of two million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year and two million tonnes of general cargo. On completion the port’s capacity will be more than 12 million TEUs a year. But the port cannot function without the equipment and personnel to monitor and control the vessel movements so an office complex, the last piece of the first phase, has had to be installed swiftly. The new complex comprises eight blocks, each made up from 182 modular flat-pack units which provide a total of 168 offices with a floorspace of 2,268m2. US-based procurement company Source Supply obtained and acquired the materials for the eight prefab buildings from Prefab Building Solutions (PBS), a British/Irish-owned modular building supply company headquartered in Shanghai, China. PBS delivered the materials in 168 flat-pack containers to the port management in Doha in November 2015. They were then assembled by Source Supply staff in just 10 days and the resulting office blocks were finished and fitted out within a month. They were ready for occupation before the end of the year. The Chinese-designed flat-pack buildings are suitable not only for offices but also for site accommodation, kitchens and mess halls. The buildings are designed so that nearly all components can be lifted by just two workers and connected simply using nuts and bolts, so the labour only needs to be semi-skilled. The need for heavy machinery is kept to a minimum too, and the only elements that need to be hoisted are the floor and roof trusses, which can be done with a small crane. Although flat-pack panelised buildings can be adapted to fit any shape or size, the shipping costs are kept down by ensuring that all designs will fit into a 20’ shipping container. The modular design also allows for remodelling of the original configuration to accommodate the expansion or contraction of site operations at a later date. Like all the oil-dependent Gulf states, Qatar has had to develop a plan for life beyond 2030 when it will need to sustain its own development and a growing population without recourse to petro-dollars. The result is a massive surge in infrastructure projects, many of which have been fast-tracked since Qatar secured its bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. One of the biggest is the New Port Project which is located close to the existing Mesaieed Industrial City. This sits on a major shipping channel and has its own port to service heavy industries and a wide range of petroleum products. The raw materials Qatar needs to complete these large construction projects require capacity which the current port does not have – and it must have the capacity in place to complete key infrastructure projects in readiness for the 2022 World Cup. Currently Qatar’s economy is 79% industrial, with half of this related to oil and gas exports. The ultimate aim of the NPP is to develop the non-hydrocarbon sector and create a more sustainable economic base in accordance with the Qatar National Vision 2030. The NPP is also intended to transform the country into an import hub for the region so that it is more resilient to changes in the global economic environment. It therefore has links to other transport networks such as Hamad International Airport and the railway and road networks that are also under development. Further Images This article was published on 18 Oct 2016 (last updated on 18 Oct 2016). Source link