Good morning. Get that almond milk flat white to go and drink in this morning’s news from the national press and EG.
Intu is facing another setback as the fall in value of Gateshead MetroCentre triggered a covenant(£) on it’s biggest bond. The £485m debt is backed by the retail centre, but LVT has now gone over the 70% threshold. Analysts are asking “is this the first domino, or the second”.
WeWork will definitely not be taking Goldman Sachs’ former HQ on Fleet Street. Instead Lipton Rogers and PLP Architecture have been appointed to give Peterborough Court a major revamp.
Meanwhile WeWork has confirmed that it’s own chief architect, Danish design superstar Bjarke Ingels, has left the firm. Whether that is down to cost-cutting or being over-friendly with Brazil’s president is unclear.
Wandsworth Council has approved plans for its £1bn jv with Taylor Wimpey to regenerate the Winstanley & York Road Estate in Clapham Junction. The plans will increase the amount of housing from 530 to 2,550 homes.
Figures from Nationwide show house prices rising by 1.9%(£), higher than any time over the previous 14 months.
The relationship between British executives and their shareholders has hit a new low(£), according to a firm that represents big investors worth £18.5tn…
And McCarthy & Stone don’t need to read that report, after the retirement home builder’s largest shareholder, Anchorage Capital, responded to a 25% profit drop by dumping it’s holding(£).
HS2 could get the PM’s blessing(£) after Sajid Javid(£) apparently convinced him of the scheme’s merits...
… Transport secretary Grant Shapps, meanwhile, will be busy with renationalising the Northern franchise(£).
Witnesses at the Grenfell Tower inquiry have said that they will only give evidence in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
And a high court planning challenge has forced Drax to put is Yorkshire gas power plant(£) plans on pause.
Apparently there is little evidence that environmentally friendly buildings attract a rental or sale “green premium”. But there is clear evidence of a “brown discount”.
Lloyds banking Group is planning a further 56 branch closures this year, taking the net number it has closed in ten years to 655.
Claims by Russia’s new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, to not own any property appear a little less than genuine, after documents emerged showing he in fact has a £37m property portfolio(£). But if it’s in your eight-year-old kid’s name it doesn’t count, right?
Savills director Peter Allen(£) has been let off with a slapped wrist for firearms offences. His estranged wife reported him to the police when he left his shotgun cabinet keys behind when he moved out of the family home.
And finally, builders on a site in Worcestershire have unearthed a horde of gold-encrusted wine bottles(£). An expert has said that the 17th century bottles are “as rare as rocking-horse shit”.
