"Loopholes cost HMRC £5bn a year, say MPs" (and a reminder about Hammerson)

Link to The Independent

"The accountants and lawyers behind sophisticated tax-avoidance schemes, such as that once used by the comedian Jimmy Carr, are 'running rings' around HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), MPs warned last night.

The schemes are costing the Treasury £5bn a year by exploiting loopholes in a complex system designed to help businesses, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.

---

[Hammerson has arranged to administer its employee share scheme from an off-shore tax haven.

Hammerson has been developing Brent Cross in partnership with a company in a (different) off-shore tax haven.

A third off-shore tax haven company independently wishes to build a waste incinerator at Brent Cross, presumably using (or at least referring to) Hammerson's existing planning permission for a waste incinerator on the site.]

"Kidbrooke Village. A New Village for London"

Link to Berkeley Group web site

"Kidbrooke Village is bringing much needed, high quality new homes and apartments to London, but it offers far more than just homes. The sustainable community lifestyle offered at Kidbrooke Village means you can enjoy a different way of life, with everything you need close to your new home.

"Kidbrooke Village is one of Berkeley's biggest regeneration projects to date, costing an estimated £1 billion, making it one of the largest residential developments in London. When complete it will have 4,800 new homes and 300,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

"It consists of four distinct yet integrated neighbourhoods: City Point, Blackheath Quarter, Kidbrooke Village Centre and Meridian Gate, which between them will offer an outstanding choice of contemporary new homes and apartments to suit every type of buyer.

"Kidbrooke Village is for everyone. There will be a new primary school and new premises for an existing school. Shops, bars, restaurants, a hotel and office space will gather around the central area, Kidbrooke Village Centre, a focal point for the community. With healthcare and sports facilities as part of the development, everyone can be fit and healthy.

"Open space is another key feature of Kidbrooke Village. More than half of its total area will be parkland, including the new Cator Park and the established Sutcliffe Park."

"Berkeley's Vision for 2020"

"We will create high quality, sustainable places where
people choose to live,  work and spend their time.
These will be places that directly encourage
the well-being of residents and offer them a space
and a base from which to lead safe and fulfilling lives.
Our ability to transform sites into thriving communities
will be considered the best in our industry.
Through our ability both to engage and to deliver,
Berkeley will be the developer of choice for
local authorities and existing communities."

"Why focus on delivering
sustainable communities?"

"Delivering well-designed, safe, sustainable places which will endure
as settled, vibrant communities long into the future is vital to
the social and economic sustainability of the UK.
We believe that a long-term vision and appreciation of the needs
of our customers and stakeholders before, during and after
the deliveryof our schemes is the way we can deliver this.

"Successful, sustainable places emerge from the management
of a complex series of relationships and processes.
[More than Hammerson has ever achieved.]
The ability to do this well gives Berkeley a real advantage.
Just as with delivering well-designed and sustainable homes,
delivering sustainable communities can create value,
increases saleability and enhances the reputation of our business."

(Click image for more)

---

"The Kidbrooke Kite is a hyperlocal blog and news site covering Kidbrooke, Eltham West, the Ferrier Estate and beyond. Do you have any stories, pictures, press releases or tip-offs about the area? Is there an event, or public meeting you think we should know about? If so, then please get in touch with the editor Adam Bienkov."

Link to web site posting on Kidbrooke Village

"Kidbrooke 'village' rises to 15 storeys"

"Berkeley Homes have been accused of repeating the mistakes of the Ferrier Estate, after they raised the height of towers in Kidbrooke's new 'village centre' to 15 storeys, six storeys higher than originally planned.

"... Despite these objections from locals, Berkeley Homes and Greenwich Council are pushing ahead with their plans, stating that 'It is considered that the height of the proposal is acceptable for this site'."

"So what do you think?"

"Are these high rises suitable in what is essentially a suburban location? Will they spoil or improve the local skyline? And will they contribute to the new 'villagey' atmosphere we've heard so much about?"

Comment on the web site: "At the time the London Plan (Ken's) stated that high rise should only be built around major transport hubs and along the Thames. A train station and a bus stop does not make a major transport hub. And the Quaggy hardly qualifies as a major river.

"Whilst landscaping will probably help break up the new blocks of apartments the whole thing is starting to look very samey. Certainly a lost opportunity to create an iconic development.

"Also the fight to get on a train at Kidbrooke in the next couple of years for the daily commute to London / Canary Wharf will interesting to see."

Until Sun 7 April: Bristol Architecture Centre: "After the Party: The Legacy of Celebration"

"With the year of the Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Games behind us, this exhibition explores the legacy of celebration.

"Drawing on the RIBA’s own collections, it presents events from the past alongside a preview of our own 2012 legacy projects, including the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, due to open in July 2013. The exhibition not only charts the creation of some of the world’s most extraordinary structures but also considers how such places are sustained once the 'party is over'. It includes interventions that have had a lasting urban impact, transforming entire cities, alongside others that provide more cautionary tales.

"The exhibition presents an unmissable opportunity to see some remarkable architectural models from the summer's Olympic Games: the London 2012 Olympic Stadium by Populous, London Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects, London 2012 Velodrome by Hopkins Architects and The Copper Box (Handball Arena) by Make Architects will all be displayed in the Architecture Centre gallery.

Architecture Centre

"Farewell, my bicycle, I’ve got a motor-car, and the North Circular Road will be built in less than 30 years!"

"This poem seems to show that the late Victorian middle-class bicycle boom was well and truly over by 1897.

In fact, cycling continued to be a popular form of leisure and transport for some of the moneyed classes through to about 1910. For instance, the composer Edward Elgar didn’t take up cycling until 1900 and explored the Malvern lanes close to his home until 1909, before his wife made him hang up his Sunbeam in favour of a motor-car."

(Click on image above for 'Roads Were Not Built For Cars')

A new housing estate on the North Circular Road
by the Brent Reservoir, Dollis Hill, 1928.
(Produced from a damaged negative)

Until 10 March: "Sell your Soles at Brent Cross Schuh!"

"Between 9 February and 10 March 2013, Schuh is asking ‘kind soles’ to donate their unwanted shoes in the Brent Cross store, where customers will be rewarded with a £10 voucher for every pair they hand over. £10 Vouchers will be valid until 7 April 2013.

Terms and conditions apply.

Barnet Times: "Dollis Valley Estate regeneration in High Barnet could begin by autumn" (We've heard that phrase before)

Link to Barnet Times

"Plans to demolish a 1960s housing estate and build more than 600 ‘affordable’ homes have been submitted to Barnet Council.

"The Dollis Valley estate in High Barnet will be flattened as part of the regeneration, which was commissioned by the local authority, and building work could begin by the autumn."

---

Link to Barnet Press

Barnet Press:
"Residents’ dismay at Dollis Valley redevelopment plans"

"John Davies ... in Mays Lane said:

“In Mays Lane it is almost impossible to find a parking space the majority of the time,” he said. “I have got an elderly mother who is in a wheelchair. We take her for the odd week and if I have to park three or four streets away it is going to be a nightmare.

"It is an overdevelopment. We are happy for Dollis Valley to be regenerated. It’s just that they are incorporating a much wider area. By the time they are finished the roads are going to be a nightmare."

"Rob Allen can explain the offside rule, but at Brent Cross they think it's all over". (A headline of two halves, really)

Link to Evening Standard

"An abandoned railway goods yard that has stood empty for almost half a century has been turned into central London’s biggest five-a-side football complex by Power League.

"The two and a half acre site in Shoreditch has already attracted hundreds of bookings from local teams that could not previously find places to play close to their offices.

Rob Allan, assistant director of development at Hammerson said:

“We have a long history of working well with Powerleague on our development sites. The Goodsyard will ultimately become a vibrant new mixed-use London ‘village’ linking the City with Brick Lane, and will comprise retail, residential and office components, but it is great that before that, it will still create value for the local community by providing much needed sports facilities." [Phew! Sentence is a bit long, Rob.]

The day after the fire in 1964
(Link to 'Disused Stations')

Tweets on the line

Er, that's it.

"New homes for techies as Google moves to King's Cross"

Link to Evening Standard

"Google’s move to a million-square-foot bespoke office complex at King’s Cross Central will be the biggest UK property deal of the 21st century so far — and will cement London’s position as the technology capital of Europe.

"As London emerges from the banking crisis [sic], it is re-inventing itself. New digital hubs are rejuvenating neighbourhoods where old trades and technologies have perished. This is bringing a fresh vibe to the streets, together with designer homes for techies who want to live close to their workplace.

"... Transformation of 67 acres of blighted railway land at King’s Cross has proved a regeneration masterclass. [In comparison, Hammerson's 'regeneration masterclass' at Brent Cross is beyond rescue, even by London Communications Agency, its PR outfit.] 

"It is an entirely new district in the making, with 20 new streets and 'boulevards', public squares, restored heritage buildings, modern offices and retail space, plus 1,900 new homes, 40 per cent of which are 'affordable', available through One Housing Group." [It also doesn't have the ten-lane North Circular Road running through the middle.]

"OECD calls for crackdown on tax avoidance by multinationals" (Are you listening, Hammerson?)

" 'This is about the survival of democracy,'
said OECD secretary general Angel Gurría."
Link to The Guardian

"Governments need to modernise their tax systems to catch international companies that dodge paying corporation tax, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned.

"The ease with which companies shift profits around the world to offshore havens shows that tax authorities need to step up their anti-avoidance efforts or risk losing billions of pounds in much-needed revenues, said the Paris-based thinktank in a report on Tuesday.

"Angel Gurría [above], head of the OECD, said the G20 needed to act this year to combat avoidance, which he said was undermining the ability of governments to recover from the financial crisis."

---

[Known links between Hammerson and off-shore tax havens are joint retail property development at Brent Cross, the administration of its company share scheme, and joint (possibly independent) ambitions to build a waste incinerator at Brent Cross. Although no more direct tax avoidance by Hammerson is alleged, it is not illegal anyway.]

Evening Standard: "Capital’s workforce grows but fewer drive to their jobs" (Many will HAVE to drive to the new Brent Cross!)

Link to web site

"The number of people driving to work in London has fallen over the past decade, despite a big surge in population, official figures revealed today.

"Statistics from the 2011 census show that 62,000 fewer Londoners are commuting by car or van than 10 years earlier, even though the number of residents in the capital has leapt by 850,000 over the same period.

"Technological innovations [have] allowed more Londoners to work from home. [There has also been] a surge in use of the Tube and other 'light rail' routes, and an increase in cycling."

" 'We'll feel poorer for three more years': Grim warning issued on cost of living" (At this rate Hammerson, your Brent Cross approval will go out of time)

"We're full up here, but
try Fenwicks car park"

Link to Evening Standard

"The Governor of the Bank of England today issued a grim warning to families that the unprecedented squeeze on their living standards will last for at least three more years.

"Sir Mervyn King said there was little sign of respite before 2016 as inflation stays 'stubbornly' high — fuelled by rising food, transport and utility bills — while wages stagnate.

"His warning came as new official figures showed that the impact of the financial crisis has already sent living standards back to those last seen in 2003. It is the first time on record that real wages have dropped so far."

---

Daily Telegraph:
"Pay rises
'outstripped by inflation'"

"The Office for National Statistics [said that] male workers in private firms
have suffered the biggest decline in earnings since the recession in 2008.
Their average earnings last year were worth less in real terms than in 2002,
the research showed."

---

The Guardian:
"Boris Johnson promotes London's tech sector - video"

Link to video (auto-runs)

PPS: "Announcing The Future of Places Conference Series"

Link to web site

"... The conference begins with the premise that the world is at a crossroads. 

"We have a choice: cities can continue to grow haphazardly, without regard to human social needs and environmental consequences, or we can embrace a sustainable and equitable process that builds community, enhances quality of life, and creates safe and prosperous neighborhoods.

"We are convinced that in the future, the cities that utilize the social capital-building potential of their public spaces to the fullest will be the ones with the most dynamic local economies.

"The Future of Places will survey the field, and map out a path to a more people-centered urban development model for the globalized future." 

[Rather knocks the unsustainable quick-profit plan of Hammerson and Standard Life Investments - aided by Barnet council - into a cocked hat, doesn't it?]

---

"Making a 'Great Place'
in New Jersey"

"While much of the effort has been on improving the design of streets,
sidewalks, and public spaces, the effort has been multi-dimensional.

Based on PPS’s recommendation, Mayor Elizabeth Baumgartner created
the Downtown Development Commission (DDC) in 1981, which took
the opportunity to involve all stakeholders, from landlords and merchants
to residents and the arts and non-profit communities – tapping into
the inherent passion of the 16,000 people who call the place home.

Playfully underlining the later feat, Davies adds,
“No one agreed with anybody
in 1981. Merchants thought that
the problem was with parking."

Evening Standard: "Housing costs in London 'driving us out'"

Link to web site

(Ipsos MORI image)

"Half of Londoners fear they may be driven from their neighbourhoods by the sky-high cost of housing, an exclusive poll for the Standard reveals today.

"The Ipsos MORI research found that nine in 10 feel it is harder for them to buy or rent than it was for their parents. Almost as many predict grimly that it will be even harder for their own children to get a home of their own.

"The findings of the nationwide survey are an indictment of the housing crisis gripping the capital and the nation. Ipsos MORI uncovered anxiety in every corner of the country about housing, among young and old, rich and poor, renters and buyers."

LondonLegacyCorp: "Exclusive behind the scenes tours of the Olympic Park" (£15. Hammerson's Brent Cross car park tour: Free)

Link to web site

"For a limited time only, people can visit the London 2012 site for an exclusive behind the scenes look at the developing Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and a chance to take a trip up the ArcelorMittal Orbit.

The new Park In Progress Tour is a fantastic opportunity to get on to the former Olympic site to see the creation of this whole new part of London, before the new Park begins to open to the public from July 2013.

"... The Tour includes a behind the scenes site briefing and a visit to the ArcelorMittal Orbit viewing platforms, where there is a new interactive experience telling the story of this extraordinary part of London."

Right-click on image, and choose PLAY.
Choose layers at top right of image of the park.
Or run it full-screen here.

---

The final chapter on a
sustainable London 2012"

The report shows public transport, walking and cycling were
key parts of the success of the Olympics and Paralympics.
"It says that the principles of inspiring more active forms of travel
through the staging of a major event and promoting
as many travel options as possible, both for those
travelling to the event and those that are temporarily
impacted, can be applied easily elsewhere."

(Report sponsored by Dow Chemicals)

Evening Standard: "First time buyers won't afford a house until they are 54, report warns"

Link to web site

"Aspiring first time buyers in London without access to “Bank of Mum and Dad” need to save for almost a quarter of a century to raise enough money for a deposit, a new report claims today.

"The average deposit currently stands at £58,000 on a typical 'first rung on the ladder' property costing £290,000.

"Even putting aside half of disposable income - after paying the rent, council tax, utility bills and other essentials - it would take 24 years to accumulate the cash."

---

Link to:

"Ferdinand Mount: Why we owe it to our children to build, build, build"

Barnet Times: "Flash mob takes over Brent Cross Shopping Centre to raise awareness of Langdon campaign"

Link to web site

"A 50-strong dance troupe took over Brent Cross Shopping Centre yesterday. The dancers danced to Michael Jackson’s Wannabe Starting Something to mark the launch of a local welfare charity’s new campaign.

"Langdon, an Edgware charity which supports people with learning disabilities, was launching its Love Langdon campaign which aims to raise awareness of the services Langdon provides for Jewish adults with learning disabilities."

Evening Standard: "British Land banks on Crossrail in £142m Ealing buy"

Link to web site

"Property giant British Land took a £142.5 million bet on Crossrail today, as it snapped up a major shopping centre in west London from its Dutch owner.

"... Ealing’s centre is almost 30 years old, and British Land thinks the deal will unlock redevelopment potential and shift its retail portfolio to London and the South-East. British Land retail head Charles Maudsley said:

“We believe there are opportunities to develop the shopping centre as a retail destination, both as we improve the retail mix and increase the leisure offer, and as the area benefits from residential development and the completion of Crossrail."

Sunday Telegraph: "Growth targets hit again, as 'big squeeze’ goes on"

Link to web site

"The Bank of England will cut its growth forecasts this week, and warn that the squeeze on family finances will last longer than expected, in a prediction likely to douse recent hopes that the UK was heading back to recovery.

"... Although the Bank will predict that growth will return, after two years of near stagnation, its outlook is likely to take the gloss off recent upbeat surveys showing that confidence in the recovery is building.

According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), 2013 has started strongly. It has estimated that growth improved, from -0.3pc in the three months to December, to zero in the three months to January."

---

NIESR: "Zombie households"

"Is the UK economy being held back by 'zombie' households lumbered with too much debt to go out and spend? Dr Angus Armstrong, director of macroeconomic research at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, argues this problem is linked to growing inequality over the last 30 years."

---

Link to web site

The Observer:
"New Bank of England governor should heed Japan, trying to emerge from lost decade"

"Japan is engaging in investment and innovation across the board, and on a scale Britain can only dream of.

"Time after time, as I questioned company leaders about their capacity to do this, I was referred to Japan's 'public interest' or 'stakeholder' capitalism – committed long-term ownership, partnership with the state to drive research forward and corporate leaderships keen to find commercial responses to the giant economic and social problems of our time.

"It is a world foreign to our own [and the London Borough of Barnet, and off-shore tax-haven associated Hammerson] of shareholder value maximisation and gigantic personal bonuses, where interest in social problems is seen as 'anti-business'.

[Reposted] 15-24 Feb: Zippos Circus - Brent Cross!

"Tickets for Zippos Circus at Brent Cross"

(click on image)

"Zippos Circus is on tour throughout the UK this year, with an all-new, action-packed Big Top circus performance that will leave you breathless! New to Zippos in 2013 will be Nicky de Neumann and her horses with an exciting new equine presentation, and we welcome back the roaring motorbikes inside The Globe of Death. 

"Hosted by Norman Barrett MBE, ‘the World’s Greatest Ringmaster’, Zippos has received four-star reviews in the national Press, and was voted Britain’s Best Circus!"

• ‘Heartstoppingly good fun’ Time Out
• 'You feel like an awestruck child’ The Guardian
• ‘One of the most thrilling circus acts I have ever seen' The Daily Express
• ‘Zippos makes Cirque du Soleil look wimpish’ Daily Telegraph

---

Link to HOME (see all posts).

"Boom and bust: how property markets are faring around the world"

Hammerson's rejected Brent Cross proposal, on extended Welsh Harp
Link to The Observer

"... Then there's London. The contrast with the rest of the UK has never been more stark. Prices in some outer boroughs are below their peak, but in wealthier central districts, the crash never happened. 

"In Kensington and Chelsea, the average home now costs £1.08m, up 13% during 2012, and £330,000 ahead of 2007.

"Meanwhile, tenants have never had it so bad. Young adults and families unable to afford huge the huge deposits demanded by lenders have turned to the private rental market, where rents have climbed, even as average pay has stagnated."

Private Eye: "A Local Authority selling Public Property to a Developer for a Song" (Should be of use to the London Borough of Barnet, then)

"How the Heygate estate at Elephant & Castle
was sold to Lend Lease for a song"
Link to 'Private Eye' (lengthy PDF)

Er, that's all.

"Top tips: creating places where people want to live"

"Our panel of experts share their advice on how to design places that people are proud to be part of" [unlike Hammerson, then]

Link to 'The Future of Housing'
(The Guardian)

Grainia Long is chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing

Consultation problems:
"There's lots of research to show that individuals place massive value on being involved in shaping the built environment."

Mike Donaldson is group director of strategy and operations at L&Q

Good places are not just nice homes:
"Many towns and much of outer London could redevelop at much higher densities, which would support improved facilities and public transport."

Sophia de Sousa is chief executive of the Glass-House Community Led Design charity

Options for life:
"We need to build in flexibile housing that bring people through different stages of the life cycle."

Ed Warrick is assistant development director at Affinity Sutton

Biggest risk:
"The reduction of affordable housing section 106 obligations on private developers removes the least risky, quickest, and most certain way of delivering some of the best affordable homes."

David Waterhouse is head of programmes for the Cabe team at the Design Council

Make yourself heard:
"We have seen the disaster of short-term knee-jerk reactions in the past on housing delivery and standards."

Sara Cunningham leads on neighbourhood investment and social value at the National Housing Federation

Design standards:
"There is an issue with the raft of differing design standards across the housebuilding industry."

Erika Rushton is director for regeneration at Plus Dane Group

Is the planning process worth engaging in?
"I spent many nights watching residents be consulted on planning applications that they, in reality, had little or no say about."

Tim Edwards is head of regeneration at the Aspire Group

Social return on investment:
"Too much emphasis is placed on the physical aspects of regeneration rather than the social aspects."

Alan Yates is director of regeneration at the Accord Group

What activities do we undertake in our homes?
"With modern technology we can revert back to the home being the place where we live, work and learn."

Darrin Gamble is head of neighbourhoods at Bromford Housing Group

The design and build quality are the basics:
"Very important ones – but they are just the starting point. It's the people that make a community."

Rebecca Roberts-Hughes is policy manager at the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba)

People tell us that new homes lack character:
"One way to overcome this is through community involvement in the design process."

Lisa Culhane is group head of development and regeneration at Asra Housing Group

Trapping residents:
"There is a danger that we trap residents for generations because of the poor local offers in terms of schools and employment prospects."

John Giesen is chief executive at B3Living

Great places to live are made great by the people:
"It is important that people believe their views will be listened to, and that there is a point to being involved."

This live discussion was designed and managed by the
Guardian Housing Network
to a brief agreed with L&Q, sponsor of our
Future of housing hub

GLA Tory Group: "Add mobile signal to the tube"

Link to report (PDF file)

"London’s Underground is missing out on one the most important modern technologies: mobile communication.

"The Underground facilitates no voice or SMS communications and recent steps to add Wi-Fi to 92 of the 260 stations, and not the tunnels, are not enough to reap the benefits of a full communications network. The technology to have a full network exists and many other cities are using it now.

"London is missing out on the many benefits a mobile communications system provides and may be losing out on much more. Transport for London (TfL) could connect the Tube with voice, SMS and modern 4G data, with minimized delay and at a low cost to Londoners."

---

Hammerson expects 26% retail growth in nine years (No, really)

MAJOR* NEW REPORT REVEALS

‘AGE OF CONSIDERED CONSUMPTION’

• Sales growth to accelerate over next decade
• Overall store numbers to fall, but those which remain to be more important than ever
• The rise of smartphones and an ageing population will drive faster retail sales growth over the next decade, but only those retailers which succeed in remaining relevant for tomorrow’s consumer will benefit.

* [Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?]

"That’s the finding ['Those are the findings'...?] of a new report The Reshaping of Retail produced by respected retail consultant Conlumino, on behalf of leading retail property company Hammerson.

The report expects average annual growth in retail spending of 2.4% between 2013 and 2022, an improvement of the 1.9% achieved over the past decade. By 2022, retail spending will have reached £377bn, up 26% on current levels.

However, the rate of spending growth remains well down on that achieved through the 1980s and 1990s, and retailers will need to be on top of their game to thrive in what the report calls the age of ‘Considered Consumption’ over the decade ahead.

KEY FINDINGS:

• Consumer mindset to shift from ‘Careless Consumption’ to ‘Considered Consumption’
• Considered Consumption is an emerging mindset for shoppers, which is less impulse driven and more about selective purchasing
• Retail spend will be up 26% to £377bn by 2022 as discretionary spend is expected to rise
• The over 55s are expected to contribute towards 62% of retail growth (£46.7bn) by 2022
• By next year, 69% of consumers expected to use three or more channels to shop
• By 2020, mobile spend is set to be £53.9bn of direct and indirect sales, comparing to £2.9bn today
• 59% of consumers currently shop using click and collect
• Overall store numbers expected to decline by 10% by 2020
• The role of the store will still remain key, with a greater share of retail sales informed by online research.
[That's enough key findings.]

Hammerson Chief Executive David Atkins said:

"Considered consumption reflects a consumer who is less concerned with the pure acquisition of products, and thinks more about what they are buying. It makes it vital for retailers to have a strong, differentiated brand, offer 'must have' products, and engage more frequently with their customers to give them a reason to visit their stores”

"With an ageing population, much of the growth will be driven by older shoppers, meaning the over-55s will contribute nearly two-thirds of retail growth over the next decade.

"The report also predicts that mobile devices will account for over a quarter of retail sales by 2020 - some £54bn - partly through direct sales and partly through customers using their devices to research purchases in store or on the move. 

"While stores will retain a vital role, overall store numbers in the UK will decline by 10.3%. [We like the "point 3".]

"Increasingly, retailers will focus their expansion towards

major cities

and

destination shopping centres

[can't think where] which offer larger stores, good accessibility and a better choice of restaurants and cafés. 

"Stores will have to evolve, with their role in highlighting brand awareness, showcasing product offers and facilitating click and collect purchases growing in importance.

Neil Saunders, Managing Director, Conlumino said:

“Hammerson’s report reveals that Britain needs to rewrite the retail rules. Retailers must differentiate their ranges, engage more frequently with consumers and adapt their business model to a slower growth environment if they are to inspire, excite and compel shoppers in an era where consumers are calling the shots.”

David Atkins concluded:

“While such dramatic change in retail will inevitably present challenges to some, there is also a huge opportunity for those retailers which anticipate and meet the changing needs of customers.”

---

---

Link to the (major) report (PDF)