The Guardian: "‘They’ve taken the heart out of Bolton’: the demise of the UK shopping centre"

Link to The Guardian

"Bolton council, which bought Crompton Place for almost £15m from the Santander pension fund in 2018, plans to knock it down, saying the town has 'a surplus of retail space'. In its place the council says it wants to build a more attractive area that it hopes will attract new tenants to empty sites around the main square and nearby streets, as part of a £1bn town centre redevelopment.

Crompton’s demise is echoed in towns and cities across the UK. Tired shopping centres have become one of the biggest obstacles to reviving high streets. Often hemmed in by buildings and hugely expensive to overhaul, they have turned from assets to liabilities – victims of a vicious cycle of store closures. Councils are increasingly becoming the owners of last resort, buying shopping centres from investment funds."

Evening Standard: "Hammerson sees close to £1.6bn wiped off estate value as pandemic hurts retail property sector"

Link to web site

"Close to £1.6 billion was wiped off the value of shopping centres firm Hammerson's property empire in a year that saw the pandemic clobber retailers and their landlords.

Chief executive Rita-Rose Gagné said the landlord in 2020 suffered its largest fall in net rental income and UK asset values since the group was founded in 1942.

Hammerson, a joint owner of the Brent Cross mall and behind Birmingham’s Bullring centre, was hit as numerous businesses were forced to temporarily close sites for lockdowns."

Warrington Guardian: "Intu collapse: What will happen now to the shopping centres?"

Link to web site

"The owner of the UK's biggest shopping malls, including the Trafford Centre, Intu has tumbled into administration after failed crunch talks with its lenders.

"The shopping centre owner said it has applied to appoint administrators from KPMG, after warning earlier on Friday that it was on the verge of collapse.

"The confirmation came minutes after the London Stock Exchange suspended shares in the listed firm."

Estates Gazette: "Argent Related presses go on Brent Cross offices"

Link to web site

"... 'Brent Cross will be nothing like King's Cross,' says Nick Searl, Argent Related partner and joint lead on the Brent Cross South development. 'We’re not trying to copy what we did there. It is a completely different place. Brent Cross has a very different existing perception. And it’s something that we are going to have to work really hard to shift.'

"He's not lying. Google 'Brent Cross' and you are not greeted with pages and pages of rave reviews, of blogs fawning over the community, the amenities or the Happiness Index. You are greeted with images of a rather depressing shopping centre and not much else.

"... A consent earlier this month for a new Brent Cross West Thameslink station means that by 2022 there will be a direct line into King's Cross that takes just 12 minutes, the area already boasts an existing Tube station on the Northern Line taking people into (or out of) Old Street and the City, it sits at the foot of the M1 giving easy access to the Oxford Cambridge arc, and within an hour you can be at any one of five airports." [That's enough items in a list. Ed.]

Evening Express: "Chairman of Bullring and Brent Cross shopping centres quits"

Link to web site

"The chairman of struggling shopping centre owner Hammerson has announced he will quit on the same day its sites, including Birmingham's Bullring and Brent Cross in north London, reopened non-food stores for the first time since lockdown.

"David Tyler said he would quit no later than October 1 and be replaced by former Land Securities chief executive Rob Noel, the company confirmed.

"The decision comes less than a month after chief executive David Atkins quit, following years of over-expansion which has left the business with a massive financial black hole."

BBC: "Climate change: 'Gob-smacking' vision for future UK transport"

Link to web site

"People in the UK need to shift from cars to public transport to address the challenge of climate change, the government says.

"Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "'Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.'

"They are made in the foreword to the government's De-Carbonising Transport consultation."

Inside Croydon: "[Brent Cross and Croydon's] Hammerson’s £781-million loss points to end of the shopping mall"

Link to web site

"Anyone clinging to the faint hope that the publication this morning of Hammerson's annual report would offer encouragement about the prospects of a new super mall in Croydon town centre were quickly disabused when the company’s chief exec issued a statement which included the doom-laden verdict: 'The magnitude of the challenge facing UK retail is significant.' But then, David Atkins' company's losses for the last 12 months were £500-million more than in 2018.

" 'We are reviewing plans for Brent Cross and Croydon ... to ensure the developments address changing customer and occupier requirements and include a greater mixed-use element than originally planned,' Atkins, the Hammerson CEO, said in his report.

"Hammerson has been flogging off shopping centres in the past year to reduce their debts (since July 2018, they have sold 14 retail parks, generating £764million). They are certainly not building any news ones and incurring new debts."

The Independent: "A car-free future? How UK cities are moving towards a pedestrian age"

Link to web site

"Rush hour, York city centre, sometime around the end of the decade. Stress-free commuters glide by on bicycles, community gardens are tended by volunteers as they leave work, and early evening diners spill outside on to table-filled squares.

"Over in Fossgate, a mid-week street festival is just beginning. At the station, a line of on-demand driverless pods whisk arriving rail passengers to their end destinations.

"Such is what this North Yorkshire city could look like if proposals approved by the council to make the centre car free by 2023 come to fruition. Or so say advocates."

Barnet Times: "Barnet ward boundary map re-drawn"

Link to web site

"The electoral map of Barnet has been re-drawn to ensure local politics remains representative as the borough’s population grows.

"... The changes, which are due to take effect in 2022, are designed to ensure the number of voters represented by each councillor is roughly the same across the borough while maintaining community identities.

"They include the creation of a Cricklewood ward and the division of Colindale into separate Colindale North and Colindale South wards."

[Reposted] Brent Cross West station: extra 8-car platforms for the Dudding Hill Line from west London - but not in planning application!

Alternative station designs (Bedford is to the left, St Pancras to the right)

WLO Brent Cross West Interchange Feasibility Study Report Rev P02 (1) by scribdstorage on Scribd

November 2018: Brent Cross West station:
'reserved matters application'.

HS2 Ltd: "We invite your feedback on the design of HS2’s Common Design Elements planned for the Phase One route between the West Midlands and London"

"Common Design Elements are parts of the railway with a standardised appearance which will give it a recognisable look and make it more efficient to build. They include frequently used structures, such as bridge piers and parapets, as well as lineside noise barriers.

"Since Parliament approved plans for the Phase One route in 2017, we've been developing the design of the new railway and now we need your views to help inform how we progress with the Common Design Elements.

"You can view the plans on the HS2 website and download an information booklet, before completing our quick online survey. The survey closes at 11pm on Thursday 30 January 2020."

[Reposted] Transport for London: The 'West London Orbital' in Barnet, at Hendon, Brent Cross West and Cricklewood

2019-09 TfL WLO TEG 190925 Kumapley Slides 1-37 (1) by scribdstorage on Scribd

The Guardian: "Mass consumerism is destroying our planet. This Black Friday, let's take a stand"

Link to web site

"... Today, in austerity Britain (and, yes, for all the talk of spending promises, austerity is still here), the idea of excessive consumerism seems to have lost much of its resonance. Memories of consumerism and easy credit seem to have become tainted by the recession. Academics have observed how Britons felt ashamed of their pre-crash consumerism and (wrongly) felt personally accountable for the austerity that followed, identifying particular consumer objects – such as expensive tracksuits and conservatories – as symptomatic of a flaw in the national character.

"For many consumers, shopping has become mixed with guilt and a sense of responsibility as it increasingly depends on credit card debt and the labour of poorly paid and precarious workers – and it has a heavy environmental toll. Buying something today is also an experience drained of fun: it often entails making sure you are in when the package arrives, unpacking it and realising that it isn’t what you wanted.@

Room 151: "PWLB rate hike sends shockwaves through council finance sector"

Link to web site

"Whitehall today threw a hand grenade into local authority borrowing plans by announcing a whole percentage point increase in the rate of borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).

"Borrowing from the loan facility has continued to increase at a rapid rate in recent years due to record low rates on offer – with many using the money to invest in commercial property to produce a financial return to invest in services.

"In a letter to chief finance officers at local authorities sent on Wednesday, the Treasury's local government and reform team called a brutal halt to that spree with the rise, which takes immediate effect."

Barnet Times: "Delayed Barnet regeneration scheme [by developer Hammerson] is 'being revised'" (As in trying to revive a dead parrot.)

Link to web site

"A plan for part of a major regeneration scheme that was put on hold last year is being revised, a council official has confirmed.

"New plans for the Brent Cross North scheme – set to include a revamped shopping centre – are expected to be submitted to Barnet Council in the next few months.

"It comes as the traditional UK retail market continues to face challenges from the rise of online shopping."

Yahoo: "Hammerson swings to loss amid challenges to retailers"

Link to web site

"[Brent Cross] owner Hammerson has unveiled stinging losses as its portfolio of shopping centres slumped in value amid challenges to the high street.

"The retail property firm swung to a loss of £319.8 million in the six months to June 30, compared with a £55.7 million profit this time last year. On an adjusted basis, which is the company’s preferred measure, profits were down 10.5% to £107.4 million.

"The headline loss was largely down to a £423.4 million net revaluation loss on its property portfolio in the first half, as continuing market uncertainty and a slowdown in leasing affected value, especially in the UK. More than half of this was down to its flagship shopping destinations in the UK, which had a revaluation deficit of £266 million."

Evening Standard: Building on tube station car parks

Room 151: "The future for outsourcing after Barnet formula cracks"

Link to web site

"Internal reviews are rarely news but the announcement by London Borough of Barnet that it was reassessing its outsourcing deal and bringing key services back inhouse was a major moment.

"The decision by councillors, which was not widely publicised, was that 'the director of place role and the skills, employment and economic development (SEED) team from within the regeneration service, and the safety, health and wellbeing (SHaW) service, be returned to the council, subject to completion of the necessary financial due diligence.'

"Added to this, the council will decide in the autumn the future contractual arrangements with Capita for staff involved in the management and governance of the Brent Cross Cricklewood development scheme.

"Finance and Strategic HR had already transferred back to Barnet Council from Capita in April and the firm has already paid more than £4m in compensation."

Palmers Green Community: "Preliminary meeting about plan to build housing on Arnos Grove station car parks"

Link to web site

"I braved the appropriately wet weather and went to this event this afternoon. There were quite a number of (vocal) people there and very little in the way of detail. I gleaned the following.

"This is (I was told) deliberately a preliminary consultation to see how locals react. A further consultation will take place later in the year, supposedly when more flesh will be on the bones. A similar event was held last night about similar plans for Cockfosters.

"Housing comprising 150 units is envisaged for the two Arnos car parks. The developer is Grainger plc, a long-established builder and rental landlord."

[Reposted] Barnet Times: "Major housing schemes planned for Barnet tube stations"

Link to web site

"A thousand homes could be built at tube stations in Barnet in a bid to ease the capital's housing shortage.

"Major developments are being planned at Finchley Central and High Barnet stations to provide housing, commercial space, improvements to the public realm and better connections for pedestrians.

"Drawn up by Transport for London (TfL), the proposals involve building 650 homes in Finchley Central and up to 350 in High Barnet – 40 per cent of which would be classed as affordable."

ICO: "Access to information goes to the heart of a healthy, functioning democracy. Services that are accountable and transparent are better public services." (Tell Barnet.)

2019-06 ICO Strategy by scribdstorage on Scribd

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.”

Improving the West London Orbital railway corridor through Brent Cross

2019 06 West London Orbital Strategic Outline Business Case by scribdstorage on Scribd

Natural History Museum: "Leading scientists set out resource challenge of meeting net zero emissions in the UK by 2050"

Link to web site

"To replace all UK-based vehicles today with electric vehicles (not including the LGV and HGV fleets), assuming they use the most resource-frugal next-generation NMC 811 batteries, would take 207,900 tonnes cobalt, 264,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate (LCE), at least 7,200 tonnes of neodymium and dysprosium, in addition to 2,362,500 tonnes copper.

This represents, just under two times the total annual world cobalt production, nearly the entire world production of neodymium, three quarters the world’s lithium production and at least half of the world’s copper production during 2018. Even ensuring the annual supply of electric vehicles only, from 2035 as pledged, will require the UK to annually import the equivalent of the entire annual cobalt needs of European industry.

"The worldwide impact: If this analysis is extrapolated to the currently projected estimate of two billion cars worldwide, based on 2018 figures, annual production would have to increase for neodymium and dysprosium by 70%, copper output would need to more than double and cobalt output would need to increase at least three and a half times for the entire period from now until 2050 to satisfy the demand."

The Observer: "Left in a siding: the rail link that could make Heathrow greener"

"Airport and Department for Transport fight shy of backing new line from Staines that would slash car usage"

"Life is easy for the toads and bats of Staines-upon-Thames: the disused railway line has formed a woodland corridor that runs north towards Heathrow. Terminal 5 is just a mile or so further on as the bat flies. But to reach it from Staines station would take a hapless rail passenger almost two hours via three trains.

"That could drop to just six minutes under plans to link Staines and other parts of Surrey to the airport. Yet as Heathrow prepares for a major consultation on its third runway on Tuesday, new rail links are just an option, despite the argument that they would help tackle the airport's pollution problem. They would also be a clear answer to transport secretary Chris Grayling's call for 'market-led' proposals for new railway lines.

"As a precondition of Heathrow expansion, parliament has stipulated that the proportion of passengers travelling to and from the airport on public transport must rise from 39% to 50%."

The Guardian: "Atmospheric carbon levels are leaping. We can't afford more years like this"

Link to web site

"One of the many ironies of the climate crisis is that as temperatures change and extreme weather becomes more common, we need more energy to maintain comfort. Hotter summers have driven an increase in power-hungry air conditioning and cooler temperatures in some places – which may be driven by the melting Arctic – raise demand for heating.

"BP's report that carbon emissions from energy use have risen at the fastest rate in nearly a decade reflects those forces, as well as continuing demand from a rising global population and expanding industries.

"The effect is already discernible in the atmosphere. Last week, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography reported that carbon dioxide levels in the air leapt this year by the second highest amount in their records, to 414.8 parts per million, at the famous observatory in Mauna Loa where CO2 has been measured continuously since 1958."

Wembley Matters: "'Full participation on Brent Cross West Station plans or we will go to law,' Capita-Barnet told"

Link to web site

"The Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross was formed a long time ago and consisted of several political groups, including the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and Labour politicians as well as individuals. trade councils and community organisations. It has had ups and downs as the plans ebbed and flowed but Alison Hopkins has written to Capita-Barnet, who handle the Brent Cross Thames Link project, calling for full public participation ahead of the submission of any planning application for Brent Cross West station.

"... The collapse of the car-based Brent Cross shopping centre expansion has met one of main aims of the Coalition, which has been to oppose Barnet council’s predicted 29,000 extra car journeys every day in the area. That has been opposed based on both unwanted road congestion and what is now called the global heating emergency.

Retail Gazette: "Hammerson shareholders rebel over exec pay at AGM"

Link to web site

"Hammerson has been dealt a blow by shareholders who voted in anger over excessive executive pay at the company’s AGM yesterday.

"Nearly 30 per cent of the shopping centre giant's investors rejected its remuneration report, which featured multimillion-pound share payouts to Hammerson executives.

"Prior to the AGM, shareholder advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) urged investors to vote against the report due to concerns over stock awards and bonuses worth millions dished out to top executives, including boss David Atkins."

[Reposted] The Guardian: "‘We are building our way to hell’: tales of gentrification around the world"

"From community displacement in Mexico City to tourism-triggered evictions in Lisbon and crazy rent hikes in Silicon Valley, our readers shared stories of gentrification happening in their cities – and the initiatives trying to tackle it"

Link to web site

"Here gentrification happens very quickly. Every month some 'nice' restaurant or shop opens. The old name of my neighbourhood (Kinkerbuurt) was changed and rebranded to 'Hallenkwartier'. I would enjoy many of the changes if I knew others could enjoy it as well. But poor people have to leave, social housing is sold off, and rich people and tourists move in.

"There was a squatting action, a demonstration and protests against the rebranding of the neighbourhood. I have seen posters and banners on houses. But the city council is just selling off social housing. Waiting time for a house in this neighbourhood used to be eight years, now it is 18 years."

"...We have a great tradition of social housing corporations in the Netherlands – some cities had 50% social housing. Now the whole way of thinking is about extracting money, not creating communities. When prices go up, they say ‘the market is doing well’. When scarcity is applauded, that is very wrong."

Brent Cross West station: Big money to Barnet: What could possibly go wrong?

2019-03 Brent Cross Crickle... by on Scribd

Construction Enquirer: "Hammerson puts major construction work on hold"

"Hammerson has put a hold on starting construction of any major developments in the UK"

[There's a surprise]

Link to web site

"The developer is focusing on selling more than £500m of property assets to pay down debts while values continue to fall in the UK.

"Hammerson confirmed last summer that it will be delaying the start of a planned £1.4bn extension of the Brent Cross shopping centre where Laing O’Rourke is lined-up as main contractor.

"... Projects now on hold until 2020 at the earliest include Brent Cross, the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, and The Goodsyard in the City of London."

This is Money: "High Street crisis rocks shopping centre giant: Hammerson could be forced into £900m firesale as it plunges to loss and value of its properties slumps"

On the way out?
Link to web site

"Hammerson has plunged into the red following a disastrous year for the firm and its bosses.

"The shopping centre owner, whose retail empire includes the Bull Ring in Birmingham and London's Brent Cross Shopping Centre, swung to a £266.7million loss in 2018 having made a profit of £413.4million in 2017.

"It was hit by a £622million slump in the value of its estate, a 6.2 per cent decline in rental income, and an increase in the number of empty stores at its shopping centres and retail parks."

[Other than that,...]

Barnet Times: "Brent Cross Shopping Centre owner to sell assets to pay debts"

Link to web site

"Shopping centre owner Hammerson, owner of Brent Cross, has reported millions of pounds in losses, and says it will sell off some of its investments to pay off its debt worth over £3 billion.

"In July 2018, the company said it would be selling £1.1 billion of its investments, properties and estates over a two-year period.

"The news has been met with some trepidation as people fear the losses and the selling off of assets may harm Brent Cross or people's jobs."

Hammerson collapse: "Bullring owner targets £900m-plus sell-off as retail crisis bites"

Link to The Guardian

"Hammerson, which owns shopping centres including Birmingham's Bullring and London's Brent Cross, is in talks to sell off more than £900m of property after being hit by the crisis in Britain's retail sector.

"The FTSE 250-listed firm said it was in active discussions to offload more than £900m of assets, far exceeding its £500m target for 2019. Last year it sold off £570m of property, with the average price 7% below the book value in December 2017.

"Hammerson is under pressure from an activist investor, the US hedge fund Elliott Advisors, which owns a 5% stake in the company, to speed up disposals, after a 9.3% decline in its property values in 2018."

---

Inside Croydon:
"Hammerson raise more fears for £1.4bn Croydon scheme"

Link to Inside Croydon

"Hammerson, the owners of Centrale, one half of the 'Croydon Partnership' which was supposed to be starting work on the £1.4billion redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre in central Croydon this autumn, has this morning announced that it has put all its major construction projects on hold, and is instead focusing on flogging off more than £500million of property assets to pay down its company debts while the values of its properties continue to fall."

Committee on Standards in Public Life

6.4896 CO CSPL Command Pape... by on Scribd

2019-02-20 Policy & Resources Committee: The Brent Cross Plan - "On a Wing and a Prayer" or "This is Not Going Well"

2019-02-20 Policy & Res... by on Scribd

Inside Croydon: "Barwell, Brexit and Croydon's troubled Westfield/Hammerson dream"

"STEVEN DOWNES on how the meddling of Tory politicians and the Croydon Establishment managed to ensure that the redevelopment of Croydon town centre was never going to run smoothly"

Link to web site

"Questions were asked in the House of Commons recently which saw Croydon, the Westfield/Hammerson centre and Brexit all mentioned in the same breath. Things must be bad.

In one important respect, the gloomy predictions about the outcome of Brexit and Westfield’s dalliance with Croydon town centre have been linked from the start.

"Because both have had considerable input from an Oxbridge-educated public schoolboy, who has never held down a proper job in his life, and landed his latest state-funded position because of who he knows, rather than what he knows."

Decline and Fall of Hammerson: "Fears for mall increase as Hammerson takes a hammering"

"Our retailing correspondent, MT WALLETTE, on how the plunging share price for HAMMERSON, half of the so-called 'Croydon Partnership'. could see the redevelopment of the town centre postponed … permanently"

On the way out? Link to 'Inside Croydon'

"The stock market is becoming increasingly nervous about the valuation of one of the major players in the long-promised regeneration of Croydon town centre, to the extent that there is a growing fear that one half of the “Croydon Partnership” could be forced to pull the plug on the £1.4-billion project.

"Much of the focus on the redevelopment of the increasingly dilapidated Whitgift Centre has so far been on developer Westfield and their plans for the super-mall, which was first revealed in 2012 but is now running at least six years late on its original 2017 completion date.

"However, it is the falling share price of Hammerson, the mall operators who own Centrale and who are the other half of the Croydon Partnership, where the biggest worries for the future of the 'Hammersfield' project now lie.

Inside Croydon: "Crisis for Croydon as [Hammerson and] Westfield 'review' their £1.4bn scheme"

Link to web site

"Hammerson and Westfield today announced a decision to 'review' the £1.4-billion project to redevelop Croydon Town Centre, blaming Brexit and uncertainties over the retail sector.

"In so doing, they immediately claimed 2019's No Shit Sherlock award.

"The scheme to rebuild the ageing Whitgift Centre and link it with Hammerson's Centrale mall on the opposite side of North End in Croydon town centre has been promised by Westfield and Hammerson since 2012."

A second Hammerson scheme collapses: Evening Standard: "Hammerson/Westfield's £1.4bn Croydon development 'under review due to Brexit and structural changes on the high street'"

Link to web site

"The owner of the Westfield shopping centres today said it is 'reviewing' its £1.4 billion new development in Croydon because of Brexit and 'structural changes' on the high street."

"Work on the centre, which is hoped to be the catalyst for broader regeneration, was due to start in September but is now not expected to begin until next year."

"The plans for the scheme, being built jointly by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and property company Hammerson, were approved in November 2017 and got the green light from Sadiq Khan in January last year."

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Trying to keep the failing Brent Cross show on the road

2018-12-11 Appendix 3 MHCLG... by on Scribd

The Guardian: "‘The devastation of human life is in view’: what a burning world tells us about climate change"

I was wilfully deluded until I began covering global warming, says David Wallace-Wells. But extreme heat could transform the planet by 2100

Link to web site

"I have never been an environmentalist. I don’t even think of myself as a nature person. I've lived my whole life in cities, enjoying gadgets built by industrial supply chains I hardly think twice about. I've never gone camping, not willingly anyway, and while I always thought it was basically a good idea to keep streams clean and air clear, I also accepted the proposition that there was a trade-off between economic growth and cost to nature – and figured, well, in most cases I'd go for growth. I'm not about to personally slaughter a cow to eat a hamburger, but I'm also not about to go vegan.

"In these ways – many of them, at least – I am like every other American who has spent their life fatally complacent, and wilfully deluded, about climate change, which is not just the biggest threat human life on the planet has ever faced, but a threat of an entirely different category and scale. That is, the scale of human life itself.

"... The majority of the burning [global warming] has come in the last 25 years – since the premiere of Seinfeld. Since the end of the second world war, the figure is about 85%. The story of the industrial world’s kamikaze mission is the story of a single lifetime – the planet brought from seeming stability to the brink of catastrophe in the years between a baptism or barmitzvah and a funeral."