All Leader articles – Page 2
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NewsGood, cheap and fresh: pick any two
The irony of being probed for anti-competitive practices in the midst of a transparently difficult year will not bring much comfort to the major housebuilders.
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InsightRingfence alarm bells
A couple of weeks ago, I dwelt on the declining amounts of money spent on running local authority planning departments across England.
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NewsM&S lesson: don’t diss retrofit
Michael Gove’s decision last week to throw out plans to redevelop the M&S flagship building on Oxford Street must have been particularly galling for the retailer, given that the secretary of state seems to have prioritised protecting the visual impact of the Selfridges store next door.
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NewsEase the slow squeeze
A joint paper published by Landsec and British Land last week called for planning policy changes to promote urban regeneration on brownfield sites.
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NewsEverybody needs good NABERS
At a breakfast briefing last month, Sarah Ratcliffe, CEO of the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), showed a slide depicting a very strange situation – but one which she found not the least bit surprising.
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NewsDon’t duck diversity
Loraine Martins OBE has a blunt message for any business leader who doesn’t feel comfortable discussing race, gender or any other aspect of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI): get comfortable.
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NewsA climate of inaction
It is perhaps ironic that questions around the climate crisis are so often kicked into the long grass, along with other tricky problems best solved later, preferably by someone else.
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NewsPlanning beyond Boris
In the end, just seven of Boris Johnson’s closest allies in the House of Commons rose to his defence on Monday, as MPs voted overwhelmingly to endorse the privileges committee’s report on his Partygate dishonesty.
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NewsBuilding safety still a concern
Six years ago this week, the nation awoke to the horrific news that a fire had broken out in the night at Grenfell Tower, a residential block in west London. The tragedy ultimately cost 72 lives, with many residents trapped in their homes unable to escape the smoke and flames.
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InsightHouse prices: who knows?
The two leading house price indices (HPIs), from Nationwide and Halifax, provide the most timely measure of sentiment in the housing market but also the most partial. The picture that each paints of what is going on – and the commentary provided by the lenders’ in-house experts – can often ...
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InsightHope versus housing
Labour’s attempts to portray itself as the party to get Britain building have begun in earnest, with a couple of policies floated so far that appear surprisingly bold and more than a little divisive.
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NewsThinking beyond the box
A few years ago, the mainstream media became transfixed by the prospect of self-driving cars, when it seemed as if either Tesla or Google spin-off Waymo might imminently bring such a thing to market.
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NewsReckoning for rent reforms
The tabling of the Renters’ Reform Bill this week begins the formal process of scrutinising the government’s proposals, which already feel as if they have been debated endlessly.
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InsightLet’s not be lizards
The incomparable Douglas Adams, much-missed author and satirist, died 22 years ago this week. The passing years have not blunted his many sharp insights. Take, for example, his view of the political animal, outlined in the fourth Hitchhikers book, when the dialogue turns to an unhappy democracy of humans ruled ...
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InsightWill King be a royal influencer?
This weekend we will witness a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle: the coronation of a king. A six-gun salute will be fired from Horse Guards Parade to mark the exact moment the crown touches the monarch’s head and the UK will be alive with colour and noise. But behind the pomp and ceremony ...
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NewsGood eggs vs bad apples
The most recent annual report issued by the Confederation of British Industry, for the year ending 31 December 2021, set out the principal risks faced by the CBI at the time.
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InsightAre we there yet?
Pick any random word – ‘elbow’, for example – and repeat it often enough and it will start to sound weird and meaningless. The phenomenon is often noticed by young children (and weary parents) when questions get repeated, and repeated, and repeated, and repeated.
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InsightIndustrial & Logistics: Another level
There is a child-like quality to multi-level logistics schemes, with their boxy designs split over several levels or storeys.
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InsightInflation proves tricky
Futurist and author Arthur C Clarke famously observed that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This ‘law’ of science and progress was first postulated 55 years ago and is now widely acknowledged to be true.
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InsightApologies not accepted
Tuesday’s annual general meeting of Credit Suisse featured a lot of apologies. Chair Axel Lehmann told investors that he was “truly sorry” for the events that led to its takeover by rival UBS. “I apologise that we were no longer able to stem the loss of trust,” he added, after ...
