Good morning. Here’s your daily wrap of real estate-related developments making the headlines.
New ONS figures have revealed spending patterns of remote workers during the pandemic, showing that people with children and renters are most likely to be spending more on utility bills while working from home. And one in five people during the past month said that rising bills now meant homeworking was more expensive than commuting.
But the commute will get pricier too, certainly in the capital. Fares on London’s Tube and buses will rise by 4.8% from 1 March, their biggest increase since 2012. Mayor Sadiq Khan said the rises were a condition of emergency funding provided by central government to help Transport for London survive the pandemic. “We have been forced into this position by the government and the way it continues to refuse to properly fund TfL, but I have done everything in my power to keep fares as affordable as possible,” Khan said.
The government is introducing laws forcing developers and manufacturers to foot the bill for cladding remediation. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it will block planning permission and building control sign-off for companies that do not comply. The measures are aimed at preventing leaseholders from bearing the brunt of costs related to cladding remediation. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said: “It is time to bring this scandal to an end, protect leaseholders and see the industry work together to deliver a solution.”
Kensington and Chelsea Council has hit back at proposals to turn Notting Hill police station into private housing as it bids to buy the largely disused station from the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime.
Moderna is said to be in advanced talks with the UK government about investing in a new research and development and factory site, and eyeing sites in London, Oxford and Cambridge for the hub.
The Competition and Markets Authority has fined JD Sports £4.3m after finding its chairman breached its rules by meeting the chief executive of Footasylum and exchanging commercially sensitive information. The authority blocked a £90m takeover of Footasylum by JD Sports in September and banned the companies from sharing commercially sensitive information. JD Sports said the conclusions were “either incorrect or have been presented in a misleading manner”.
Accountancy firm Mazars has told the Trump Organization that a decade’s worth of financial statements it helped to prepare for the former US president should no longer be relied upon. The letter from the firm’s US general counsel to the Trump Organization’s lawyer was included in a court filing by the New York attorney-general, Letitia James, who said last month that she had found “significant evidence” of fraud committed by the family property business.
Here’s Steve Malkin, chief executive of Planet Mark, on the need for real estate not only to tackle embodied carbon more effectively, but to start the conversation earlier and earlier in every project’s process.
And finally, one of Britain’s oldest pubs could yet be saved. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub in St Albans was set to close after struggling during the pandemic, but landlord Christo Tofalli told The Guardian that he has been fielding “lots of phone calls” from prospective buyers. Auctioneers at JPS Chartered Surveyors have set a deadline of Monday for expressions of interest.
Right, you’re all set. Enjoy the day.
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