Good morning,
The Levelling Up and Reeneration Bill could be rebranded as the new prime minister sets about reshaping policy. Discussions are being held in Whitehall about bundling in elements of the paused Energy Security Bill, and then renaming the whole lot a “Growth Bill”.
Meanwhile, the chancellor is expected to deliver an emergency Budget next Friday. Kwasi Kwarteng will use the “fiscal event” to bring in winter tax cuts and set out more detail on energy support.
And the World Bank has warned that efforts to tackle inflation could cause a global recession.
As the nation mourns the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the industry’s eyes are on her heir. Charles, as Prince of Wales, was vocal, and sometimes highly critical, in his passion for the built environment, as two pieces plucked from EG’s archive show.
But will King Charles III be as forthright? Or will the convention of “the neutral monarch” silence his passions?
The broken planning system is to blame for the undersupply of life science lab space in the UK, writes OpenCell boss Helene Steiner in The Times(£). Councils should encourage repurposing and fast-track “change of use” planning consent to meet demand and repurpose swathes of vacant retail, commercial and brownfield space.
Meanwhile, the latest Voice of the Region heads to Birmingham, where lockdown’s legacy has been a fillip for the retail sector.
A German press baron used his best-selling tabloid to campaign against Adidas’s decision to stop paying rent during the coronavirus pandemic, without disclosing that he was, in fact, the company’s landlord.
But just because the court tells your tenant to pay their rent arrears, that doesn’t mean you will ever see the missing money(£).
Shell has made its biggest commitment yet to going green by naming its head of renewables, Wael Sawan(£), as its next chief executive. The energy giant confirmed that Ben van Beurden is to step down(£) after nine years in charge.
While in China, local government financing vehicles – usually used to support infrastructure projects – have become the biggest buyers of development land, spending $57bn in H1 alone.
And finally, “levelling up” has so frequently been derided as a catchphrase with no substance, that it seems fitting that even the catchphrase is threatened with extinction. The slogan is perhaps too tied up with Boris Johnson’s brand of boosterism for it to ever sit comfortably in the mouth of his successor, Liz Truss. She prefers the more prosaic rallying cry of “Growth!” There are even rumours that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will become the Department of Growth – DoG for short? At least we now know what Liz Truss meant when she said in the campaign that levelling up “is not just a slogan”. She meant it will not even be a slogan.
