RetailWeek: "Retail landlords still need to get real"

Link to web site

"I couldn’t help smiling, albeit through clenched teeth, while reading the interview with Hammerson boss David Atkins last week on Retail-week.com.

"Not that I found any humour in his assessment that business rates make about as much sense as an Eric Pickles parking scheme, I think that’s a given now, at least to anyone outside the ivory towers of the Treasury.

"No, it was the jarring irony that his comments came as part of his revelation of a 9.9% or £140m increase in Hammerson’s net rental, which struck my funny bone, as it encapsulated the inveterate myopia shared by so many in the commercial property industry."