Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG, as well as a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
Michael Gove has overruled a planning inspector’s decision to refuse permission for Berkeley Group’s Hounslow plans. The inspector said the 2,150-home scheme contravened local and regional planning policy, was wrong for the site and should be rejected. Gove said that was all true, but regeneration and homes were more important. Even though this decision has gone Berkeley’s way, after three years of struggle, it does seem to back up boss Rob Perrin’s view that the system is a mess.
Hopefully Manner will have an easier time in Manchester, where it is pressing ahead with plans to bring a former Manchester cotton mill back to life as a 578-bed student scheme. Its plans for the iconic Hotspur Press, in the Oxford Road Corridor, have been submitted to the city council.
Across the Atlantic, Macy’s is the target of a $5.8bn offer to take the department store chain private. The incentive for Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management is the property portfolio, valued at $8.5bn, with its iconic Manhattan store accounting for $3bn of that.
Meanwhile, the creative industry is London’s third-largest sector after finance and real estate. We have to make space for them, writes General Projects founder Jacob Loftus. “Investing in space for creatives makes for better-performing, more prosperous places.”
In other news:
Make UK pension funds invest in UK, says Hammond
Shaftesbury Capital’s COO stands down
Big Yellow gets green light in Epsom on appeal
Insurers amassed €3bn exposure to Signa
India’s ‘vaccine prince’ buys London mansion for £138m
