Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin with the latest news and views from EG, and a few of the best bits from the daily papers.
New starts in the build-to-rent sector have plunged by 55% in the first half of the year. According to new data from the British Property Federation, starts have slumped as cost inflation bites, with new starts in London down 80%.
North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll has quit the Labour Party and will run as an independent. The move is a confirmation of what Driscoll told EG’s Office Politics podcast – that he would run as an independent if enough people wanted him to.
Andy Haldane, author of the levelling up white paper and chair of the levelling up advisory council, has admitted that most people “haven’t seen much fruit” from the policy and regard it with a “so what?” attitude.
Taylor Wimpey CEO Jennie Daly, has joined the prime minister’s new business advisory council, which meets in Downing Street today.
But the PM is facing a backlash from his own MPs after rules making it easier for construction companies to hire foreign workers came into effect.
In other news, a high street in Poole, Dorset, has staged a remarkable recovery after tenants were given a two-year rent holiday by Legal & General Investment Management.
More than 3m council homes could have been built with the £400bn increase in property values received by private landlords since 1990, a renters group has claimed.
Ministers will commit £20bn to fund the development of small modular nuclear reactors, which they hope can be plugged into the grid in the early 2030s.
And Cambridge University is facing a backlash over its plans for a 90-acre solar farm to be built on green belt land to the west of the city centre.
And further afield, Chinese developer Evergrande has revealed the scale of the financial fallout from its 2021 defaults, posting an $81bn loss for the last two years.
