Good morning,
After a week that saw record temperatures and devastating wildfires, real estate leaders have warned that the built environment is “dangerously ill-equipped” to deal with the effects of the climate crisis.
The world is on fire, writes EG’s editor. Now is not the time to worry about the costs of climate action, this is real estate’s moment to be the hero.
Especially as the politician’s don’t appear to be that keen to do anything. Cabinet minister Kit Malthouse has said the UK must learn to live with the effects of extreme weather, but the government has been accused of caring too little about the impact of climate change, with the prime minister skipping a Cobra meeting earlier this week to go to an airshow.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss, the final two candidates to take Boris Johnson’s place, have failed to put climate at the forefront of their campaigns, despite endorsing the target to be net zero by 2050.
Nearly half of Britain’s shopping centres should be knocked down or dramatically repurposed, according to a report by Lambert Smith Hampton.
And nearly half of UK SME landlords plan to grow their portfolios in the next 12 months, new research has found – even as a turbulent macro climate looms over the industry.
DP World has been accused of dodging tax with an £80m understatement of the value of land bought for its London Gateway port.
Urban Splash has secured £43m of funding from Aviva Investors to refinance 800,000 sq ft of workspace in Liverpool and Manchester.
Prologis will push ahead with plans to buy more space in prime European locations as record demand helped to boost profit in the second quarter.
The Office Group has opened 51,000 sq ft of flexible workspace at Borough Yards, SE1.
And British Land’s redevelopment of 100 Liverpool Street has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.
Sizewell C, the planned nuclear power plant on the Suffolk coast, has been granted planning permission after ministers overruled the Planning Inspectorate.
The Guardian takes a trip to Royal Albert Dock, once touted as the next Canary Wharf but now a “Ballardian dystopia” without a single office tenant.
And a €130m opera house is being planned for the site of the infamous Nuremberg rally.
A city in China has set up a bailout fund for Chinese property developers. Evergrande, Sunshine City, Sunac and Kaisa are among the developers hit by a boycott on payments for unfinished homes.
And finally, workers in Japan will soon be able to take a nap in the office(£) without even having to lie down, thanks to a furniture designer’s innovation. Furniture company Itoki has created “nap boxes”, lozenge-shaped century-boxes which allow workers to sleep upright by supporting their heads, backs and knees, and preventing them from falling over while having a kip. It is hoped that the nap boxes will prevent Japanese workers from literally killing themselves through overwork – a practice known as “karoshi”.
That’s it for this morning. Hasta la vista, baby!
