Good morning.
A new spatial framework for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc will be published next year. The framework aims to develop an ambitious plan for growth and double economic output for the Varsity region to £200bn.
Topshop’s creditors(£) have been left with a £176m hole in their pockets, double the previous estimate made by administrators.
The hoped for flurry of new year investment opportunities has failed to materialise in London, with just four properties being launched as the lockdown continues.
Its just one of the signs that London is depressed, writes EG’s editor. It needs to be shown a little love.
The FT’s Lombard column (£), meanwhile, says the key to London’s revival will be its night-time economy, focused not on the West End but the City.
And even though things are still gloomy, there is still plenty to celebrate. EG Awards 2021 has opened for entries, so let’s get the party started. Sort of.
After all, the markets are beginning to look beyond the lockdown(£), lifting the share price of West End rulers Capco and Shaftesbury.
The UK is looking at raising the state aid limit(£) to put more money into Covid-crippled businesses. The EU raised its cap last month.
Swedish activist investor, Peter Gyllenhammar, has lifted his stake in London-listed REIT Palace Capital. He says that the 50% discount to NAV meant that someone would “certainly bid for the company”.
Businesses will only need to pay back Covid debt(£) when they are profitable again, under plans laid out by Labour, which is repositioning(£) itself as the party of “financial stability”.
Half of employees say that they will look for a new job(£) unless their bosses allow flexible working after lockdown.
They might find some stiff competition(£) from the more than 2m people(£) who have been without work(£) for six months.
More than a thousand stores have closed and 850 retail jobs lost each day since the start of the year. But that is just “the tip of the iceberg”(£), says the Centre for Retail Research.
And millions of small businesses are being left to fend for themselves(£).
The government could give high streets a boost by putting just £2.5m into funding 100 retail-to-resi conversions(£), says British Bids.
Don’t be “perverse”, says the National Trust. Converting shops to housing in conservation areas will lead to “stagnant and characterless”(£) heritage quarters.
House prices(£) across the UK climbed by 8.5% during 2020 to reach a record average of £252,000, according to the ONS.
The government could fall foul of its own rules on unsafe housing as firms seek millions in payouts(£) for council tenants.
The chancellor must use next month’s budget to tackle the rent debt crisis, a coalition of charities, renters and landlords have said.
Arconic, the firm responsible for Grenfell Tower’s lethal cladding, has admitted to a “misleading half-truth”(£) over fire safety tests.
Americans took out a record $1.2tn of mortgage loans(£) in the final three months of 2020.
The head of one of Germany’s most blue-blooded families is suing his son for control of the family property empire. The prince of Hanover(£) accused his son of “base ingratitude”, saying he had been forced to live in a “forest lodge” in Austria. We can think of worse places.
Apparently, though “no one cares”(£) whether or not Putin owns a £1bn palace on the Black Sea.
And finally, the monuments are falling to a divisive period in US history. No, not civil war statues – Trump casinos. The last remaining Trump branded building in Atlantic City has been demolished, with the help of a cheering – and socially distanced crowd – and 3,000 sticks of dynamite. After a string of bankruptcies and The Donald distancing himself from it in 2009, the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino was the worst performing casino in Atlantic City by the time it closed its doors in 2014. Punters paid $10 a head to watch it being blown up from their cars.
