If ministers had hoped that their overhaul of the judicial review system would strike the right balance between facilitating legitimate objection and preventing gratuitous obstruction, they will be disappointed.
But then they never really stood a chance. As one respondent said when I posed that very question on Twitter this week: “Some people think gratuitous obstruction IS legitimate objection.”
That frustration is understandable. For too long developers have faced too many uncertainties caused by the judicial review process. The barriers to objection have been too low, the burden of proof has been imbalanced and the upshot has been a system that favours the objector over the developer to too great an extent.
Now, of course, the right to object must be protected. But not at all costs.
A £215 fee for hearings in person when written applications are rejected will help ensure objectors at least think twice before pursuing a claim (p36). Halving the time limit for applying for a planning decision review from three months to six weeks will help bring forward certainty.
For some it’s only tinkering at the edges. But perhaps that’s a necessary price of democracy.
Relief at Lambert Smith Hampton this week as the firm announced a significant step towards its sorely-needed, long-negotiated and morale-boosting financial restructuring (p37).
The deal sees Sankaty Advisors acquire the junior debt and the 20% equity stake in the firm previously held by Caird Capital. The Bain Capital affiliate was already LSH’s principal lender, having previously acquired LSH’s senior and mezzanine debt from Lloyds Banking Group last April. It removes a major distraction from the firm’s senior team, which can now concentrate on repeating successful projects like the £200m sale of BBC Television Centre.
But a major question remains unanswered. With the likes of CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle now capitalising on their global behemoth status and a number of well-run niche firms delivering innovation for clients, what is the future for the squeezed middle?
New Knight Frank senior partner Alistair Elliott understands the re-ranking of the property advisory industry: that’s why he is determined that his firm joins the global elite (p56). That he is forced to acknowledge that getting there will take a little longer than previously thought matters little. His plan to move key staff around the globe has to be the right way to deliver on those ambitions in a partnership. And it should help make Knight Frank – and other companies that offer similar opportunities – an exciting place to work for a generation that simply has no interest in being chained to the same desk for 40 years.
Ireland’s property market has bottomed out, according to Roger Bootle’s Capital Economics. “The economy is still fragile, but occupier demand is unlikely to drop further,” is the house view. The omens are good: there has been a (relative) lull in the eurozone crisis, office values and rents are rising in Dublin, Irish GDP surprised on the upside last year and there are signs of improving competitiveness (p44). No wonder Allsop Space is considering launching a separate commercial auction in Ireland (p47). It would be glib to say that the worst is over, but the signs of recovery are good.
I’m sure he won’t thank me for pointing it out, but welcome to Twitter @JLL_Guy. When Mike Hussey (@Mr_Property_W1) began tweeting three years ago I expected a flurry of senior property types to begin bashing out 140-character missives. Others have followed suit but they have been relatively few and far between. I look forward to Mr Grainger’s first tweet.
