The Queen’s Speech on 6th November was, in many ways, an anti-climax. Unusually Gordon Brown, in his early days as prime minister, had announced the details of the Queen’s Speech as part of his review of constitutional affairs. As he said there are 23 bills covering the usual wide range of topics including housing, counter terrorism, criminal justice and immigration, climate change, child support and planning gain. Two of the bills of most interest are reform of the planning system and raising the school leaving age to 18.
Planning reforms to speed up energy programme; among the measures announced in the Queen’s Speech was a Planning Reform Bill designed to reduce the time taken to process applications for major new projects and, in particular, energy schemes such as power stations, gas storage facilities and wind farms. The proposed Bill, which is to be published shortly, stems from work done by Kate Barker for the Treasury, which was specifically aimed at major housing schemes. However John Hutton, the business secretary, who is responsible for energy, said that reforms to the planning system would entail ministers setting out national policy statements of need that would spell out how the government intended to meet the country’s infrastructure needs. A new independent commission of experts will take decisions on individual projects, with reference to the national framework and would be answerable to ministers and parliament. To maintain public consultation there will be “open floor” meetings where residents can have their say rather than the present courtroom-style inquiry hearings. The bill is expected to be used to fast-track the building of nuclear installations, motorways and airports as well as out-of-town supermarkets. Further information - Click here Times 06.11.07
Business groups welcome plans to extend school leaving age; the proposal to raise the school leaving age to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2017 had been widely canvassed. Indeed Ed Balls, the schools secretary, made a speech the day before outlining steps to encourage young people to stay in education or training. He denied that the Queen’s speech proposals would “force young people to stay on at school” and said that there would be options including apprenticeships or one-day-a-week courses for those who were employed or volunteering. Responding to critics who questioned whether the educational and training system will be effective enough to avoid having to use punitive measures he said that fines would be used as “a last resort”. The proposals were attacked by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats but won support from David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce. He said that the “government had clearly identified the problem” and hoped that the proposals and the revised qualifications would ensure that “young people develop the skills and motivation to succeed by the age of 18”. Further information - Click here Financial Times 06.11.07
Robust economy shows no sign of needing rate cut; writing before the latest announcement by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) most of the newspapers are unanimous that there is no need to change the current interest rate of 5.75 per cent. The FT cites the Reuters survey of City economists which shows 55 out of 60 are expecting the MPC to decline to follow the US Federal reserve in cutting interest rates just yet. Indeed, Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics says: “In August the committee had a tightening bias. The data has come back in even more stronger than the committee thought back then, which could have an increasing feeling on the committee that another rate hike would be necessary”. The MPC appear to have been taken aback by the resilience of the economy and recent comments by members have been in a wait-and-see vein. This has led expectation amongst Bank watchers to yo-yo. Philip Shaw of Investec, is one of those who had expected an easing this week but acknowledges that; “Over the past few weeks the UK economy has exhibited signs of greater momentum- retail sales growth has been buoyant, the latest Nationwide house price figures point to some resilience in the housing market and gross domestic product, for now at least, remains above trend”. However Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned on Radio 4 that there were still concerns about the prevailing turmoil in the credit markets and its implications for the banks. Financial Times 05.11.07, 06.11.07, Radio 4 06.11.07
Small rise in corporate insolvencies could herald threat to growth; despite only a 1.8 per cent increase in the number of corporate insolvencies in the three months to September the FT quotes a number of experts as fearing that the numbers will grow and that this could become a threat to economic growth. In all 3,106 companies went into insolvency in the third quarter of which 1,264 were compulsory liquidations and 1,842 were creditors’ voluntary liquidations. One leading insolvency expert said that the combination of the rise in personal insolvency and the global credit crunch were having a knock-on effect. Grant Thornton estimate that corporate insolvencies will rise by 5-10 per cent in the fourth quarter with more to come in 2008. This could come as a blow to an economy, which has become increasingly reliant on the buoyancy of the service sector for growth. Although business investment has grown by 8.75 per cent during the course of 2007 the recent Bank of England survey of credit conditions shows that companies will be charged more for borrowing in the future. Peter Spencer, economic adviser to Ernst & Young’s Item Club, calculates that compared to a year ago the cost of new borrowing has already increased by two per cent. He said: “The last time this kind of increase occurred, in late 2004, business investment growth fell back close to zero over the following six months”. He believes that the financial health of the corporate sector is much better than it has been for years and that business investment will only slow from 6.1 per cent to 3.2 per cent. Further information - Click here Financial Times 05.11.07
Debt advisers warn of sharp rise in repossessions; borrowers with subprime mortgages are finding it increasingly difficult to service their debt, prompting fears amongst debt advice organisations that there could be a surge in home repossessions next year. The Citizens Advice Bureau said significantly more people were getting in touch about problems relating to subprime mortgage arrears (later they extended this warning to cover everyday bills such as council tax). National Debtline expects a sharp rise in repossessions next year given the type of calls it has been receiving from distressed borrowers. Although the subprime market in the UK is not as big as the US nor is the lending considered as high-risk or irresponsible, subprime is thought to account for nine per cent of the market. “Heavy averse”- borrowers who have multiple county court judgments or are recovering from bankruptcy- make up 20 per cent of the market and are thought to be the major problem according to Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, “There are a fair number of people coming off heavy averse deals who have not managed to improve their credit status and who will now struggle to meet lenders’ tighter criteria. Many will have no place to go. I think that in a very short space of time people in this category will not be able to get a mortgage. I think we will see a significant number of repossessions next year as a result”. Financial Times 27.10.07, Times 05.11.07
Migrants fill jobs as numbers of Britons in work falls; after several weeks of ever-changing figures for the number of migrants currently in the UK, the Department of Work and Pensions has issued what it calls definitive figures. In a written Parliamentary answer Caroline Flint, the employment minister, revealed that since 1997 half the jobs created have gone to non-Britons; of 2.17m jobs created, 1.13m have been filled by foreigners. However more recent figures show that the number of Britons in work is falling, while the employment of both EU and non-EU foreign nationals continues to rise. Between Spring 2005 and the second quarter of 2007, the net 270,000 rise in employment in Britain has been the result of 330,000 in non-British EU workers and 210,000 from the rest of the world. The number of British workers has fallen by 270,000. The data comes as the prime minister has re-iterated his pledge to work with business to give “a British job to every British worker”. Financial Times 01.11.07
Limiting immigration would be bad for Britain; Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah of the Institute for Policy Research (IPPR) writes about the benefits of immigration. He says that there is a worrying political trend in that the government and the opposition are engaged in an “arms race” on stricter admission criteria and seem to agree that explicit or implicit annual limits on the numbers of economic migrants are the way forward. However what may seem like a politically attractive strategy in the short term is operationally impractical, economically painful and politically toxic. Firstly the scope for limiting non-EU migration to the UK is much smaller than is suggested. Restricting the numbers who marry UK citizens (50,000 in 2006) or claim asylum (25,000) would require dismantling human rights conventions and withdrawals from treaties. There were 309,000 students who came to the UK from non-EU countries but they are a lucrative source of income for Britain’s educational institutions. This leaves economic migration from outside Europe but restrictions in this area are unlikely to make much of an impact and are likely to hurt UK competitiveness. The number of work permits issued to skilled workers from outside Europe was just under 100,000 and this number has remained fairly stable suggesting that the UK has relied on this category to fill vacancies in important sectors. More than a quarter of London’s financial services workforce is estimated to be foreign-born and about half of all newly registered doctors and nurses in recent years have come from outside Europe. In their rush to control immigration both parties are suggesting a departure from the market-based, employer-led system of allocating work permits. An individual-led, points-based system may not be sufficiently responsive while annual limits or sector-based quotas are likely to be even worse. Politicians either do not realise that migration cannot be cut in the ways they want to, or they have calculated that the political benefit of being tough on immigration from outside Europe is worth the economic costs that this may incur. Financial Times 01.11.07
City swings to the Conservatives; according to the latest survey of City opinion conducted by Cantos, the controversy over the scrapping of taper relief for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and changes to the rules for non-domicile taxpayers has undone Labour’s carefully nurtured reputation as a friend of the City. Only one in eight institutional investors said that Labour was the friendliest to big business, whilst 69 per cent identified David Cameron’s Conservatives as being the most business-friendly. The poll, which was conducted before Alistair Darling’s attempts to pacify the CGT protestors, puts George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, as the politician who most understands the City with 26.8 per cent, followed by Gordon Brown with 18.8 per cent and Ed Balls with 13.4 per cent. Alistair Darling polls 4.5 per cent but nonetheless beats David Cameron with 3.6 per cent. Further information - Click here Times 05.11.07
City law firm helps school out of special measures; the Guardian profiles Bethnal Green Technology College (BGTC) which has, according to Ofsted, gone “from nothing to something” in the past 12 months. The east London school was placed in special measures at the end of 2005 but fourteen months later, with a new head and a partnership with Allen & Overy, a leading City law firm, the school was taken out of special measures and given an effusive Ofsted report which described it as a place where “students enjoy school and appreciate the way in which the school has involved them in improving many aspects of its life”. According to Mark Keary, the new head who has led the changes, BGTC’s secret weapon has been its partnership with City law firm Allen & Overy. As part of their CSR agenda the firm provides funding for specific programmes at the school, which the local authority would struggle to afford. These currently include an artist-in-residence and a group of students working with the company’s in-house media team to produce a promotional video. The firm’s employees regularly volunteer at the school and, last year, BGTC pupils put together a diversity training programme for the largely white, middle class company. Even though a high proportion of the pupils are entitled to free school meals, most are from an ethnic minority background and many do not have English as a first language, Mark Keary is ambitious. Last year 32 per cent of students got five A*-Cs at GCSE: this year the target is 45 per cent. A £30m building project starting in 2009 will take the school into a new era and private partnerships will continue to fund innovative projects. Further information - BGTC and Allen & Overy Guardian 30.10.07
Government advisers warn that more houses are needed; a warning that house prices in the south and east of England are on course to overtake those in London because of an acute shortage of new homes has been made by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU)-an official body set up earlier this year to advise on how to make housing more affordable. In its response to the government’s green paper that sets out plans to increase the level of annual housebuilding from 20,000 to 200,000 NHPAU says that the overall volume needs to be increased and there needs be an increase in the targets for new homes in the southern regions, which “would be the most efficient way of stabilising affordability”. Stephen Nickell, the quango’s chairman, says: “If you want to have the biggest impact of affordability, you have to build in the most expensive areas, because that’s where the jobs are ad that’s where people want to live”. However he acknowledges that building new homes in the south east “would obviously be highly contentious because that is where opposition to housing plans tends to be more vociferous”. It calls for the overall national target to be increased from 240,000 to 270,000 and for more four-bedroom houses and fewer two-bedroomed flats. Further information - Click here Financial Times 27.10.07
Kelly launches transport discussion paper; Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary, has launched a “pro-green, pro-growth” transport discussion paper which argues that Britain’s road, rail and air networks can be greatly expanded without undermining the commitment to reduce carbon emissions. The paper advocates a new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, wider motorways, congestion charging in more cities, and bigger air and sea ports. The long-term strategy document, which runs to 90 pages and promises five-year plans and the publication of a new transport white paper by December 2008, says that future spending decisions will be determined by the value they deliver and the need to cut carbon emissions. The study, which is also a response to the Eddington report on infrastructure and the Stern report on climate change, points to the over-crowded routes from London to the north west as a priority for £20bn of government spending that is up for grabs in the five years from 2014. Ministers will examine a range of options for easing the gridlock on the roads and railways between London, Birmingham and Manchester. With the scope for increased expenditure constrained by public finances, the private sector, including pension funds and other institutional investors will be expected to play a bigger role in funding projects on the lines of Crossrail. The document does not make many proposals about air travel but indicates continued support for extra runways at Stansted and Heathrow. Further information - Click here Guardian 31.10.07
Birmingham business expresses concern about Milton Keynes; the West Midlands Business Council has voiced its fears about the emergence of a Milton Keynes “super city”. It wants the government to address worries about plans to make the new town and its surrounding area twice the size of Birmingham. Amongst their fears are transport connections and the government’s desire for new housing turning it into “one huge sink estate.” There are wider concerns that the massive development of Milton Keynes all the way up to Daventry and Northampton takes it to a stone’s throw from the Warwickshire border and the impact that could have on jobs in the West Midlands. Further information - West Midlands Business Council and Milton Keynes Birmingham Post 02.11.07
City centre flats to be first victims of market jitters? the Times says that there is a growing consensus that city centres are turning into 21st-century bedsit-land transitory places for singles to live for year or so before moving on. Worse, weakening confidence in the property market is leaving many city developments exposed. Hometrack has disclosed that house prices have fallen for the first time and that overbuilding has made many smaller new-build flats vulnerable to further declines. Investors control 70 per cent of the flat market, up from 40 per cent a few years ago, and signs are that there are too many flats and not enough buyers- or tenants-to go round. One of the problems is to keep prices down and to fit in as many as possible many of the flats are so small they might be marketed as “pods” or “crash-pads”. Expansive flats are only really found in the luxury market and thus the market is restricted to occupants without many possessions- or children. Single people who have never married account for 75 per cent of the adults in central Liverpool and Manchester, while it is suggested that 70 per cent of apartments in Leeds are empty. Savills estimates that 50 per cent of new flats, in areas such as east London, are sold to investors who intend to sell them on before completion. Times 02.11.07
DTI replacement to adopt advocacy role for business; the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), created by Gordon Brown to take over from the Department of Trade and Industry, has unveiled a new logo together with a new prime ministerial remit to represent employers within Whitehall. It has published a three-year strategy document which says: “There is much that we need to do and to do more effectively than in the past”. It says that BERR has inherited from the DTI “a track record of success in working across Whitehall but also clear room for improvement”. John Hutton, the business secretary, is setting up a 25-strong team to “ensure the business voice is heard on priority issues across government”, with officials charged with improving lobbying of Whitehall colleagues in six areas: tax, innovation, skills, migration, planning and transport. BERR staff will undergo coaching to “develop their influencing skills”, as well as a “business awareness learning programme”. However the FT wonders whether business, while welcoming the department’s new advocacy role, will question how effective it will improve in practice. The CGT tax row suggests that the new department may struggle to overcome the Whitehall problem that dogged the DTI- the concern, frequently voiced by business organisations, that it lacks the clout to stand up to the chancellor. Further information - Click here Financial Times 02.11.07
UK slips from second to ninth in competitiveness table; the latest annual league table for competitiveness published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows the UK slipping from second to ninth. The US remains top but Britain now lies behind Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Singapore and Japan. The Netherlands completes the top ten. Tax and a deteriorating climate for business were cited as the main factors but there were also concerns about persistently high levels of government borrowing, alongside high levels and low saving among households. These were described as the “greatest weakness” in Britain’s global competitive standing and meant that Britain was graded 46th for “macroeconomic stability”. The rankings are constructed from publicly available data along with the verdicts of 11,000 business leaders. The top rank for the USA came despite concerns over America’s huge budget and trade deficits and the faltering dollar. The WEF said that the US as a global economic leader was bolstered by the efficiency of its markets, the sophistication of its business community and the “impressive capacity for technological innovation that exists within a first-rate system of universities and research centres”. Further information - Click here Times 01.11.07
Bureaucracy burdens new businesses; a large number of new businesses are failing to keep on top of their national insurance and tax obligations due to the unnecessary level of bureaucracy and complexity created by HM Revenue & Customs. According to a new report from the Public Accounts Committee, many businesses are forced to register separately for different types of tax, receiving separate reference numbers and having to contact different departments for each levy. The literature explaining the tax system to small business owners was also too complex. The report also calls on the department to reassess its powers to fine companies that do not pay their NI and tax contributions on time. Steps should be taken to ensure that companies had access to the right advice, to ensure that they are given every chance to get their affairs in order. Further information - Click here Independent 25.10.07
Finding mothers part-time work; a London-based social enterprise, Women Like Us, has won the Best New Social Enterprise Award at the 2007 Enterprising Solutions Awards run by the Social Enterprise Coalition. Women Like Us, which has so far got 265 women back into part-time work, was started by Karen Mattinson who noticed that every time she dropped her kids off at the school gates the same topic kept recurring; why was it so difficult for mothers to find part-time flexible work? She started Women Like Us in partnership with Emma Stewart and a pilot scheme grant of £25,000 from the Department of Trade and Industry. It began as a website but through leafleting schools they have recruited 3,000 candidates and work in 60 schools. Each school has a WLU representative to explain the entirely free service. Women who sign up are offered coaching and support to find the right job, create a strong CV or start their own business. WLU, which now has 28 salaried staff, has two income streams: grants from local government and recruitment fees from employers. The first WLU office opens in South London on 9th November and a pilot scheme will open in the West Midlands before the end of the year. Further information - Click here Guardian 24.10.07
Voluntary sector employment rises by 26 per cent; the number of people employed by the voluntary sector has risen by 26 per cent over the last decade compared to 14 per cent in the public sector and 11 per cent in the private sectors in the same period. The rise to 611,000 has been driven by the government and local authorities becoming purchasers rather than providers of public services. According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) much of the growth has come in social care activity. If charities providing social housing were also included the size of the “third sector” labour force rises to 1.5m and 6m unpaid volunteers- bigger than the National Health Service. Further information - Click here Financial Times 31.10.07
Childcare gap risks new generation of latchkey kids; Britain is in danger of producing a new generation of latchkey kids because parents of older children are struggling to find suitable care for them. The warning, which is one of the conclusions of Still Home Alone a report produced by 4Children (formerly the Kids’ Club Network), is based on the fact that there is just one childcare place for every 200 children aged 11 to 14 and that they are in danger of becoming the overlooked age group- too old for the child minders used for younger children and too old for the youth clubs used by their older teenage siblings. It argues that the problem is due to get worse next year when, under changes to the welfare rules, lone parents will need to seek work when their youngest child turns 11, five years earlier than under the current rules. It argues that councils and youth services should work with schools to provide activities at the end of the day and over the holidays, urging the government to back schemes with start-up funds of around £20,000. Further information - Click here Guardian 29.10.07
LSC chief condemns training for young people; a year after it declared a “skills crisis” in England the government has been accused by one of its top skills experts of doing a poor job of training young people. Rob Wye, director of strategy and communications at the Learning and Skills Council, the £11bn quango charged with improving England’s skills, said: “The public sector isn’t a good trainer of young people. We would like to see a lot more public sector apprenticeships, for example in local government and the health service.” The number of unskilled young people is becoming a political hot potato. There has been a steady rise in the number of “Neets”- people not in education, employment or training- since 2004 with the current total standing at 813,000. Many people blame the “revolving door”, with young people going into low-paid, low-skilled jobs with few opportunities to move up the jobs ladder via training. Many swiftly become disillusioned and quit. Mr Wye also criticised the difficulty of teaching prisoners- the bulk of whom have low literacy and numeracy skills. He said: “Because the prisons are so full, prisoners are moved on an awful lot. Taking their learning with them from prison to prison is very hard”. Financial Times 31.10.07
Government seeks to tackle the problem of NEETs; as part of the new laws announced in the Queen’s Speech to require young people to stay in education or training until 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015 Ed Balls, the children, schools and families secretary, has announced a £100m package to deal with teenagers who play truant either from school or from training schemes. Mr Balls outlined a series of interim measures to encourage young people to stay on at school or join training schemes before the law comes into effect. He said: “We need to intensify support so that long-term NEETs [not in education, employment or training] are offered a way back into work or education”. Among the specific measures are extending the September guarantee to that all 17-yer-olds have the offer of a place; extending grants to everybody taking an “entry to employment” course; trialling the extension of education maintenance awards to all courses funded by local authorities; and extending early entry into New Deal for people when they reach their 18th birthday. Mr Balls went on: “We know that persistent truants are seven times more likely to become NEETs at the age of 16. Schools have a key role in preventing young people becoming NEETs through early identification of and intervention with young people at risk and providing a diverse and engaging curriculum”. He said that the regional pattern for NEETs shows that the highest levels are in areas which have lost traditional industries and that 16-year-old boys are twice as likely as 16-year-old girls to become NEETS. There are thought to be 200,000 NEETs throughout England. Further information - Click here Guardian 05.11.07
Brown seeks to boost apprenticeships; in his first major speech on education since he became prime minister Gordon Brown has pledged to overhaul the apprenticeship system as part of his campaign to keep young people in education or training until they are 18. He also covered failing schools, increasing aspirations to go to university, the role of parents in schools and improvements to the recruitment of teachers. He promised to bring budding apprentices and businesses together through a UCAS-style matching service. Hitherto reluctant employers would also be tempted to offer work-based training by a more transparent funding system that would guarantee at least £3,000 per apprentice. More advanced apprenticeships at engineering companies would be supported by up to £15,000. There are plans to more than double the current number of 250,000 apprenticeships by 2020 and to introduce a legal entitlement to an apprenticeship for every young person by 2013. Apprenticeships are one of the main ways that Mr Brown hopes to extend education and training to all young people under 18 although, despite a recent skills drive, the UK remains behind many European countries in work-based training. On failing schools Brown said that every school must ensure that 30 per cent of its pupils achieved at least five GCSE C-grades within five years- or face closure. Further information - Click here Financial Times 01.11.07
Truancy increases; the latest government figures show that the number of days lost to truancy in secondary schools has risen again after falling last year. Government data shows that that the number of pupils playing truant has risen from 1.41 per cent to 1.46 per cent. This was in spite of overall absence figures, which include authorised absence dropping from 8.16 per cent in 2005-06 to 7.76 per cent last year. The figures, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, show that 204,810 pupils play truant at least once a week. For all state-funded schools, including primaries, the rise of both authorised and unauthorised absence was 6.44 per cent. The government’s target is to reduce this to 6.42 per cent by 2008. Further information - Click here Guardian 26.10.07
£500m literacy drive has had almost no impact; the millions of pounds spent attempting to raise the standard of English in primary schools has had almost no impact on children’s reading skills according to the Primary Review based at the University of Cambridge. Pupils feel anxious about school tests and are losing their love of reading in the drive to improve literacy level whilst there was also no sign that national testing drives up standards. The review also says that the current system could be giving up to a third of children the wrong grades. Further information - Click here Times 02.11.07
Balls announces new diplomas; Ed Balls, the schools secretary, has announced three new diplomas in science, language and the humanities, to be introduced in 2011. Signalling support for overhauling the exam system he also said that diplomas should become the “qualification of choice” to rival A-levels and GCSE. There would also be a review of A-levels in 2013. The introduction of diplomas marks the biggest schools shakeup since GCSEs began in 1986. Most schools will have to form partnerships with neighbouring schools to be able to offer the full curriculum of GCSEs, A-levels and diplomas. Mr Balls told the CBI: “If diplomas are successfully introduced and are delivering the mix that employers and universities value, they could become the qualification of choice for young people. But, because GCSEs and A-levels are long-established and valued qualifications, that should not be decided by any pre-emptive government decision, but by the demands of young people, schools and colleges”. The new diplomas, which join a list of 14 vocational diplomas planned by 2011, are the first in more academic subjects. The first five vocational diplomas- in construction, media, engineering, IT and society, and health and development- will be taught next September to nearly 40,000 young people in almost 900 schools and colleges. Further information - Click here Guardian 24.10.07
Half of top firms have not issued plans for carbon emissions; only 48 out of the top 100 companies trading on the London Stock Exchange have published a plan to address and reduce their carbon emissions and a significant minority refuse even to reveal their carbon footprint according to the Guardian’s Green List. Separate inquiries find that 68 of the FTSE 100 have collected and published information about their carbon footprint through the Carbon Disclosure Project, a group of institutional investors. A further 18 companies reported their figures to the project but refused to allow the information to be made public. The cost to the 100 companies of trading their way out of the pollution zone could be as much as £16.3bn through the European Union cap and trade scheme. That represents an average of nine per cent of present pre-tax profits. In a separate study for the Guardian, Forum for the Future analyses the carbon footprint of the top 10 global companies, which between them emit the same amount of carbon dioxide a year as the entire UK. Five of the ten- Exxon Mobil, DamilerChrysler, Chevron, Total and ConocoPhillips- do not appear to have published targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The remaining five- Wal-Mart, Shell, BP, General Motors and Toyota- have publicly disclosed varying levels of sustainable investment. Further information - Click here Guardian 05.11.07
UK to press for lower green energy targets; in an interview with the Observer John Hutton, secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, says that Britain is to lobby for a lower national target for renewable energy than the 20 per cent to which European governments agreed earlier in the year. He denies that the government wants to do a U-turn on the Europe-wide target for 2020 but argues that the same target should not “automatically apply” to Britain. He said: “We need a balanced energy policy which helps the UK to be a low carbon economy as quickly as possible but we have got to do that in a way that’s as cost-effective as possible and brings industry and consumers with use”. He said that nuclear power would not make a significant contribution to cutting emissions by 2020. The first reactor would not be in operation until 2017 and that, in any case, shortage of resources and staff among nuclear companies and UK regulators would jeopardise any building programme. Observer 28.10.07
US-Europe deal will bring expansion in biodiesel; the EU and the USA are expected to agree a deal in early November to agree international standards for trading biofuels that could see a huge expansion in the global market for alternative sources of power such as jatropha. The agreement, which is expected to be signed on 9th November, would be a significant boost to efforts by biodiesel producers such as D1, chaired by former Shell chairman Lord Oxburgh and partnered by BP, to refine thousands of tomes of oil produced from the seeds of the jatropha curcas grown in poor soil in Africa and the Caribbean as well as India. Last month D1 had to cut back its refining plans because of subsidised imports of soya-based biodiesel from the US. The European Biodiesel Board had threatened legal action over the $1 a gallon subsidies for biodiesel which had seen US exports to Europe soar from 90,000 tonnes in 2006 to 700,000 tonnes so far this year. The EU has set a target of 10 per cent use of biofuels by 2020 as part of its campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 per cent. In turn the US has accused the EU of precluding other feedstocks for biofuel in favour of rapeseed oil, the choice of the German farmers. The EU is under pressure from green campaigners to limit the use of feedstocks such as palm oil for biofuel because of their impact on deforestation. It has also attacked the subsidies given by the Bush administration in the US to produce ethanol from corn (maize). They argue that is disrupting the world’s grain markets and uses too much CO² in its production. The US insists that it is switching to second-generation bio-ethanol. Guardian 26.10.07
London has worst ‘NEETs’ problem; across London there is 25 per cent (153,000) of 18-to-24-year-olds who can be labeled Neets- not in education, employment or training- and overall London comes bottom of the regional table. Indeed in some areas such as Camberwell and Peckham (47 per cent), Orpington (44 per cent), Brent East (42 per cent), Ealing North (41 per cent), Poplar and Canning Town (38 per cent), Greenwich and Woolwich (37 per cent), Dagenham and Hackney (both 35 per cent), and Tottenham and Brent North (both 34 per cent) the figures are considerably higher. The figures, which were obtained by Chris Grayling, the Shadow Welfare spokesman, come after evidence that businesses prefer to employ migrant workers than young Britons, despite Gordon Brown’s recent pledge of “British jobs for British workers”. Grayling commented that the figures made a mockery of Labour’s claims to have ended long-term youth unemployment and “To have areas of London where nearly 50 per cent of young people have dropped out of the system is a scandal and poses huge social challenges”. Caroline Flint, minister for employment and welfare reform, insisted that young people were finding jobs and in the last year alone, the number of 18-to-24-year-olds in work has increased by 22,000. Youth unemployment has fallen since 1997 but is still three times the average. Across Britain the number of Neets has risen by 10 per cent. A study this year by the LSE estimated that there were 1.2 million Neets in Britain costing £3.6bn in benefits and crime. Evening Standard 29.10.07
Mayor wins major new planning powers; the Greater London Bill has won Royal Assent and with it the mayor now has powers to approve major planning applications in the capital. The Act gives the mayor the lead roles in housing and tackling climate change, strengthened powers over planning and waste, and enhanced powers in health and culture. Under the provisions of the GLA Act 2007, the mayor will publish a London housing strategy, set out his strategic housing investment priorities for London, be able to determine planning applications of strategic importance for London, publish a strategy for reducing health inequalities between Londoners and be subject to a duty to address climate change. The Act also gives greater powers to the London Assembly, including an increased role in the consultation and development of policy- and powers to scrutinise high-profile mayoral appointments. Regeneration 26.10.07
South Bank declared “London’s first contemporary urban living quarter”; Knight Frank & Rutley have named the South Bank as “London’s first contemporary urban quarter”. It has also included the district in its house price index for the most sought-after parts of the capital where it joins Mayfair, Belgravia and Kensington. Prices on the South Bank rose by 17.3 per cent during the year to September although in the area around the Tate Modern the increase was nearly 25 per cent. Liam Bailey, head of research at Knight Frank, said that they believed that with the help of the Millennium Bridge, which provides quick access to the City, the Tate Modern area would be the super-prime location on the South Bank. He said that prices for new developments ranged between £600 to £1,100 per sq ft, compared to £2,000-£3,000 in Knightsbridge. “Our view is this gives this area the potential to substantially outperform central London in terms of price increases”. Further information- Click here Evening Standard 29.10.07
Third traffic-free day planned for West End; the third traffic-free shopping day is being held in the West End on 1st December. For the first time Bond Street is included in the event as well as Oxford Street and Regent Street. All traffic will be banned except for rickshaws. There will also be shopping butlers to help carry purchases. The last traffic-free day attracted over one million people. Further information - Click here Guardian 01.11.07
Somerset House to be fully restored; plans have been unveiled by the Somerset House Trust to return the 18th century buildings to their full glory. The ground-floor buildings on all four sides of the courtyard will be open for public access for the first time. The six-storey riverfront south wing will be redeveloped, uncovering previously unseen gems such as a double-height gallery first used to house models of all the ships in the Navy. The vaults around the courtyard will be turned into studio spaces for artists, designers and photographers. A temporary exhibition programme will be organised in conjunction with the Courtauld Institute, which occupies the northern part of the site. This will in part replace the shows of the Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg, who have announced that it is closing its London programme of shows because of rising costs. There will also be new galleries. The work is expected to cost several million pounds but has not yet been fully budgeted. It is also dependent on the departure of the long-term tenant the Inland Revenue, which has been agreed in principle. Somerset House was originally built as a 16th-century royal palace but later became a 1,000-room building for government offices, notably the Navy Office, and learned societies. It opened to the public for the first time in May 2000 following a £48m development when two-thirds of the south wing and the river terrace came into use. The Inland Revenue car park was removed from the courtyard, creating the open space used for concerts in the summer and ice-skating in the winter. Further information - Click here Evening Standard 24.10.07
IOC “basically happy” about 2012 progress; Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has told BBC Sport that London “is doing OK” in its preparations for the 2012 Games but must focus on delivering them on time. He said “We urge them to work as soon as possible and to prepare today for the unforeseen of tomorrow”. He went on to say that the IOC was “basically happy” with the progress and remained optimistic that a permanent tenant for the Olympic stadium could be found. The current plan is to reduce the stadium’s capacity from 80,000 to 25,000 in 2013 and use it as a multi-sport venue with athletics and community facilities at its heart. But that plan depends on a football or rugby club becoming an “anchor tenant” to subsidise the stadium. So far this has proved to be beyond Seb Coe and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, partially because the post-2012 plans do not include a roof for the majority of the seats. West Ham has said they are not interested because the capacity is too small and Leyton Orient has expressed concern that it is too big. BBC News Online 30.10.07
Work on stadium to start early; David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, has told Radio 4 that work on the Olympic Stadium is to begin in April or May 2008- three months early. The designs for the new stadium were due to be launched on 7th November. BBC News Online 06.11.07
Olympics to bring £21bn to UK economy; according to estimates made by Lloyds TSB Business, thousands of companies across the UK stand to benefit from a £21bn boost to the economy provided by the 2012 Games. However the bank, which is a major sponsor of the Games, warns that many small and medium-sized businesses could miss out by failing to plan early enough. It says that the estimated value of the Olympics to the economy has almost doubled, partly as a result of increased public spending on the event. The bank has used economic modelling to estimate the value of the Games to the UK regions. The south-east will be the biggest beneficiary with a potential £8.6bn share, but other areas are set to benefit including the north and north-west (£4.4bn), the Midlands (£3.2bn) and Scotland and the south-west (£1.7bn each). Further information - Click here Financial Times 31.10.07
Transport plan excludes car parking for spectators; the Olympic transport plan is based on a strategy to encourage “100 per cent of spectators to travel to the games by public transport, walking and cycling” and there will be no car parking at the 2012 events. Even two large park-and-ride sites, which had been planned for the M25 and the M11 in the original bid, have been dropped. At the heart of the transport plan there is a pledge for trains to serve the Olympic Park every 15 seconds, with 12 rail lines converging on Stratford by 2012. Work has started on a £104m scheme to treble the size of Stratford regional station, while efforts to enable large river barges to access the park are nearing completion. A high-speed service from St Pancras will open on 14th November. Other plans include the building of 55 cars for the Docklands Light Railway to produce a 50 per cent increase in capacity and a new signalling system on the Jubilee Line to cut journey times and increase capacity by 25 per cent. An ODA official said that they were still considering plans for park-and-ride. There will be coach parks for scheduled and charter buses, while members of the “Olympic family”- 50,000 athletes, officials and members of the International Olympic Committee- will be ferried around in 3,500 cars in dedicated lanes on several routes across London, which have already been likened to the days of the Soviet Union. Further information - Click here Financial Times 24.10.07
DevSec and Igloo vie for controversial Media Centre; Development Securities and Igloo are the last to bidders left in the battle to build the 1.3m sq ft Olympic Media Centre in east London. Balfour Beatty has been dropped as it is likely to be chosen to build the Zaha Hadid-designed aquatics centre and Rosemound, which was working with Norwest Holst, dropped out earlier in October. A preferred bidder is expected to be chosen early next year. The successful bidder is likely to face pressure from the lobby group London 2012 Legacy, who are keen to see the building used as a digital media centre after the games. There are fears that it may become a retail distribution depot after the Games. Estates Gazette 27.10.07
Terry Farrell chosen for New Oxford Street; Sir Terry Farrell has been commissioned by Design for London to draw up a framework for the regeneration of the public realm in an area bounded by the northern end of New Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road, Denmark Street and Gower Street- an area usually referred to as St Giles around Centrepoint. It also includes the sites owned by Derwent on the western side of Charing Cross Road around the Astoria. Sir Terry is already involved in drawing up a masterplan for the wider regeneration of the area. Estates Gazette 27.10.07
Mixed-use scheme for Middlesex Street; ISG has been selected to construct Nido Spitalfields, a £100m mixed-use development in Middlesex Street on the Spitalfields side of the City of London. The 33-storey building will provide 1,200 student beds as well as retail units, offices and leisure facilities. The accommodation will be manufactured offsite and be craned into position. The scheme has been designed by specialist student accommodation firm Nido Student Living, who has just opened their first project in the old Nat West offices in Pentonville Road at King’s Cross. Nido is owned by Blackstone. Further information - Click here Regeneration 26.10.07
LDA unveils plans for Crystal Palace; the London Development Agency has unveiled plans for a tree-top walkway and an aquarium as central points of its plans to revitalize Crystal Palace. There will also be tropical plant greenhouses and a restored cricket pitch and pavilion. The £67.5m revamp will also include the restoration of the athletics centre- a move that has caused controversy because of the decision to fund some of the work by allowing 140 houses to be built on the park. The LDA will submit a planning application shortly. Further information - Click here Regeneration 26.10.07
Mayor publishes framework for Waterloo; the mayor has published the Waterloo Opportunity Area Planning Framework, which proposes to transform the area, which is already one of London’s major transport hubs and one of the world’s leading cultural destinations. The area covered by the Framework includes Waterloo station and the South Bank from St Thomas’s Hospital to Gabriel’s Wharf. This is identified as an ‘opportunity area’ in the London Plan, meaning it has great potential to provide new homes and jobs. The proposals include: reworking the IMAX roundabout and creating a new city square where local people and visitors will want to gather; encouraging world-class buildings around and above the station and improving the layout of Waterloo as a major transport interchange including bringing the platforms down to street level, working with Network Rail to improve the accessibility and capacity of the station and redefining it as a new centre for the area and the start of the Cross River tram linking Camden with Peckham and Brixton. Further information - Click here Evening Standard 29.10.07, 30.10.07
Kensington unveils plans for eco-village; plans to create London’s biggest eco-village on a 10.4-acre site in Kensington have been unveiled by Daniel Moylan, the Deputy Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council. The site at the corner of Kensington High Street and Warwick is currently home to four large buildings including Charles House, a former regional office for the Department of Trade & Industry, the Territorial Army, the Empress telephone exchange and a Homebase. It is planned to replace them with a primary school and nursery for 500 pupils, a doctor’s clinic, shops, restaurants and several hundred flats, half of which will be affordable housing. It will include a number of environmental initiatives, from green roofs designed to attract wildlife to charging points for electric vehicles. There will be rainwater collectors and, it is hoped, solar panels and wind turbines capable of generating 20 per cent of its own power needs. The proposal has just completed a six week public consultation and councillors will now decide whether to proceed. Further information - Click here Evening Standard 23.10.07
Ronson puts team in place for Heron Tower; Gerald Ronson has appointed Skanska as the building contractor and hired a letting director for the Heron Tower- thus confirming his total commitment to going ahead with the 663ft building on a speculative basis with work due to start next April. The 462,000 sq ft scheme at 110 Bishopsgate is due to be completed in 2011. Estates Gazette 03.11.07
University of the Arts puts its surplus land on view; the University of the Arts London, which is due to move to King’s Cross, has given potential bidders a first glimpse of what could be achieved with its surplus campus in Midtown as well as the old St Martin’s site in Charing Cross Road. The Midtown site currently has 234,000 sq ft of space on a site, which faces on to Southampton Row, Theobalds Road and the 1.2-acre site is expected to fetch at least £60m. Architects Woods Bagot have drawn up designs for a 350,000 mixed-use complex, including a hotel, 100,000 sq ft of offices and a 25-torey residential tower. Further information - Click here Estates Gazette 03.11.07
Trocadero to get £100m makeover; plans for redevelopment of the Trocadero at Piccadilly Circus have received the go-ahead from Westminster council. Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital originally submitted a scheme for the 2.7-acre site, which is bounded by Shaftsbury Avenue, Rupert Street and Coventry Street, in June last year but withdrew them three months later. The revised scheme seeks to demolish the top five floors of the 600,000 sq ft building to make way for a 505-bed Ibis hotel. The Grade 11-listed facades will be retained and the lower floors reconfigured to provide new shops facing Coventry Street, a restaurant facing Shaftsbury Avenue and a new community arts performance and exhibition space. A section 106 agreement has been negotiated with Westminster, which will involve Criterion pump close to £2m into the community centre, public arts, and environmental and traffic improvements. Further information - Click here Estates Gazette 03.11.07
grapevine is produced twice monthly (except in August and December when there
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Next issue on 22nd November 2007
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