Property Week Leader & Blogs

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  Why Gove’s proposed ground rent plan is nuts

  2024-01-25T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  The phrase ‘sledgehammer to crack a nut’ doesn’t quite measure up when it comes to the overblown solutions that housing secretary Michael Gove is weighing up to fix problems with residential ground rent.

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  The Supreme Court’s carbon conundrum

  2024-01-18T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  The notion that a single courtroom verdict might throw the entire planning system into chaos does provoke a cynical question: how would we tell?

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  There’s no profit in standing still

  2024-01-12T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  As you may have noticed, during the holiday break we’ve had the decorators in to update our print magazine’s look and feel. I hope you like the result, which is part of Property Week’s never-ending effort to improve the service we provide.

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  2023 in review: words from the wise

  2023-12-14T09:37:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to the months gone by. Rather than attempt to come up with my own sage observations, I have instead purloined the thoughts of the industry’s finest, all of whom were interviewed by Property Week over the past year.

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  COP28: time to pick up the pace

  2023-12-07T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  This week’s COP28 summit provided a suitable point at which to assess the UK’s progress in decarbonising its built environment, with reports from RICS and UKGBC, among others, providing clear lines in the sand for the industry.

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  Life and death with modern methods

  2023-11-30T09:48:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  The case for modern methods of construction (MMC) has long been described in the most polarised terms.

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  Forgotten but not gone: what’s not in the Autumn Statement

  2023-11-23T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  Every Budget or Autumn Statement is notable for the measures not announced as much as those presented at the despatch box.

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  Meta surrender epilogue: British Land outlines Regent's Place plan

  2023-11-16T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  In September, I used this space to ponder the circumstances around Meta’s surrender of the lease it had taken out on 1 Triton Square, a redeveloped office building in British Land’s Regent’s Place scheme.

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  Building needs a zap, stat

  2023-11-09T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  Most of us would welcome a drop in the headline rate of inflation, but we must be careful what we wish for. Deflation – or falling prices – is not healthy either, resembling instead the slowing beeps of a monitor as the patient slips away.

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  Decisions, decisions: from the Covid inquiry to levelling-up

  2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00By Lem Bingley

  The current public inquiry into the handling of the Covid crisis has so far painted a deeply unflattering picture of the way central government arrives at decisions. Among an extraordinary amount of mud-slinging from former advisers, a couple of things stand out.

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  Logistics: highs and lows

  2023-10-26T00:00:00+01:00By Lem Bingley

  The government’s call for evidence on ‘Freight, Logistics and the Planning System’, a consultation that opened in July, closed earlier this month and we must now await a government response in the fullness of time, whenever that might turn out to be.

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  Is infrastructure on track?

  2023-10-19T00:00:00+01:00By Lem Bingley

  The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), an independent agency formed to give advice to government, now publishes a major review of infrastructure progress once every five years – the first National Infrastructure Assessment having landed in 2018.

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  A glittering performance?

  2023-10-12T00:00:00+01:00By Lem Bingley

  As protests go, showering someone in glitter is probably at the preferable end of hurled substances.

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  All change please

  2023-10-06T00:00:00+01:00By Lem Bingley

  “The right thing to do when the facts have changed is to have the courage to change direction.” So said prime minister Rishi Sunak in his speech to the Tory conference on Wednesday afternoon.

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  What to make of Meta?

  2023-09-28T00:00:00+01:00

  Meta’s astonishing decision to spend £149m wriggling out of its commitment to lease a London office building from British Land says more about the California-based social media giant than it does about the state of the UK office market.

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