All Leader articles – Page 3
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InsightThe time is always now
On my desk is a coffee mug, given to me by industry veteran Harvey Soning, decorated with a prayer to the almighty: “Let there be one more property boom. I promise I won’t piss it all away this time.” The mugs have been around for at least a decade, but ...
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NewsThe future’s bright (honest)
Maybe it was the weather. Warm sunshine bathed Mipim last week, sweeping away the industry’s gloom. The chatter in all my meetings was arrestingly upbeat – albeit with shades of that Monty Python song about the bright side of life.
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InsightMipim: plus ça change?
I am by no means a Mipim regular, and my first impression on arrival at this year’s Cannes jamboree was that a large section of the UK had been displaced en masse to the south of France. The number of English voices contributing to the hubbub in the busy cafés ...
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InsightThe bottom line for diversity
I am writing this on Wednesday, International Women’s Day, which serves as an annual reminder that everyone in a position of any kind of power needs to consider gender equality every day, not just once a year.
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NewsDon’t underestimate EVs
Tech titan and former world’s richest person Bill Gates observed, in the hastily rewritten second edition of his mid-90s book The Road Ahead, that the future often catches us napping.
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InsightPlanning a sustainable future
This week we learned who will shoulder the perhaps unenviable task of leading the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). Architect Smith Mordak will take over from outgoing chief executive Julie Hirigoyen in June, at a time when the industry’s hunger for leadership in sustainability has never been more intense.
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InsightSafe as houses?
The terrible aftermath of last week’s earthquake has been difficult to watch on our TV screens. The scale of the tragedy, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Turkey and Syria, is numbing. It is impossible to imagine how it feels to witness or experience such devastation first hand.
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InsightRise of the robots
The year has started with one question firmly front of mind in the industrial and logistics (I&L) space: has the bubble finally burst or is the sector merely experiencing a temporary dip?
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InsightWood you believe it?
Last week I chaired a Property Week half-day conference as part of our Climate Crisis Challenge campaign, held in a suitably sustainable venue: The Office Group’s recently completed Black & White Building in London’s fashionable Shoreditch.
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InsightThe circle of life sciences
This week I learned a new word, although I’m not sure it’s a real one that has made it into any dictionaries. ‘Cycology’ is the belief that events will run in predictable cycles, with the implied hope that you can make better decisions if you can see where you are ...
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NewsPM stumbles in Zahawi zone
If any of us wondered what kind of leadership the UK might get from prime minister Rishi Sunak, we now have a clear indicator courtesy of the tax troubles of Conservative party chair Nadhim Zahawi. The leadership we are getting is not what we need.
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InsightWhat lies ahead for housing?
This week has served up plenty of food for thought on housebuilding, and a dog’s breakfast of industry reactions that run from bleak pessimism to blithe optimism.
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InsightBack to the office?
On 19 January last year, the government withdrew its Covid guidance suggesting people in England should work from home. The pace and scale of the resulting return to work naturally became a topic of great interest and no little anxiety throughout the subsequent 12 months.
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InsightTales of the unexpected
Five housing ministers, four chancellors of the exchequer, three prime ministers, two different monarchs and a partridge in a pear tree. Season’s greetings at the end of a very difficult year.
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InsightSmall details, big gains
A couple of weeks ago I visited Brent Cross Town, a 180-acre, £7bn new neighbourhood for north-west London being co-developed by Related Argent and Barnet Council. Plans are advanced but work is still at an early stage.
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InsightYou win some, you lose some
This week started with relief that the nation hadn’t gone entirely crazy and voted rogue MP and former health secretary Matt Hancock winner of ITV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Instead, Lioness Jill Scott picked up the crown.
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InsightEV revolution lights the way
Electric vehicles (EVs) have come a long way in the space of a few short years. Once ridiculed for their short ranges and odd looks, electric cars, scooters and vans are now a familiar sight on our roads as EV technology has improved and owners and business have bought into ...
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NewsPostmodern planning reform
This week we hear from Hashi Mohamed, who is one of those remarkable people who runs the risk of making almost everyone else feel like a lazy failure. He is not only an accomplished barrister, broadcaster and author but also a former refugee, underscoring the extent to which he has ...
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OnlineUnhelpful history lessons
As is widely recognised, history repeats itself. Unhelpfully, it does so in a jumbled kaleidoscope of random repetition that makes it hard to apply the lessons learned.
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InsightDon’t bury your head in the sand
The Bank of England last week warned that the UK was facing its longest recession in 100 years as it raised interest rates to 3%. Coming off the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the UK political merry-go-round, supply chain costs rapidly increasing and the cost-of-living crisis, this ...
