London Designer Outlet opened today

Link to RetailWeek

"The 350,000 sq ft London Designer Outlet scheme comprises 70 shops, 24 of which opened today, including Marks & Spencer, Nike and Superdry.

"The remaining shops will open by spring 2014. All stores offer up to 70% discounts on current season lines.

"Owner Quintain said that it has the largest catchment density for any UK outlet." [Whatever that means.]

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According to the Brent & Kilburn Times, shops that have opened in the LDO today are:

Asics, Adidas, Bags ETC, Brasilian Barbeque, Bhavi Beauty, Cabana, Caffè Nero, Chaboba, Cineworld, Clarks, Coast to Coast, Costa Coffee, Daniel Footwear, Denby, Frankie & Benny’s, Gap, Guess, Handmade Burger Co, Jimmy’s, Las Iguanas, Lindt, LK Bennett, Nando’s, Onitsuka Tiger, Pavers, Pizza Express, ProCook, M&S, Nike, Pret, Prezzo, Skechers, Superdry, Starbucks, Sunglasses Hut, TGI Fridays, Tog 24, Villeroy & Boch, Viners, Wagamama and Zizzi. [That's enough shops. Ed.]

Evening Standard: "Buy a car as you shop at Westfield: Pop in to pick up your groceries... and then your £60,000 Tesla"

Link to web site

"Shoppers heading for the giant Westfield mall in Shepherds Bush can today add 'new car' to their shopping list of food and clothes.

"London’s first car showroom in a shopping centre opened this morning in a space near the Debenhams department store previously occupied by a sportswear chain.

"It will stock the £60,000 electric car Tesla Model S — driven by Hollywood stars such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Cameron Diaz — in the 1,850 sq ft outlet.

"... The fifth anniversary of the shopping centre ... comes ahead of the start of construction of the £1 billion next phase of the mall, which will add a further 550,000 sq ft of shopping space and 1,550 new homes."

The Independent: "Eurobonds scandal: The high street giants avoiding millions in tax"

Link to web site

"Many of Britain's best-known high street chains are avoiding millions of pounds in tax through the controversial Eurobonds scheme.

"Food chains including Nando's, Pizza Express, Café Rouge, Strada and Pret A Manger have cut their taxable profits by borrowing from their owners through the Channel Islands Stock Exchange. High street retailers doing the same include BHS, the electronics retailer Maplin, Office and Pets At Home.

"The revelations form the third part of an investigation by Corporate Watch and The Independent into major UK companies using the quoted Eurobond exemption, a regulatory loophole the Government knows about but has decided not to close."

The Guardian: "Unsocial housing? Gates within gates divide the 'haves' and 'have-nots'"

Link to web site

"The promotional blurb for High Point Village, a development of 600 new homes at Hayes, on the fringes of west London, claims it is a 'thoroughly modern mix of affordable and luxury accommodation ... carefully designed – engineered, almost – to offer an oasis of calm in an otherwise busy, driven world, and to give its residents a real sense of community that is sometimes lacking in more anonymous city developments'.

It's not quite how some of the residents in the development's 'affordable' homes section view it. Those either in social housing or in part-buy, part-rent accommodation claim they are treated as second-class citizens, citing the internal gates that divide them from their neighbours in the 'luxury' housing blocks. There is even a gate in the car park to divide the affordable residents from the other homeowners.

"... Adrian Gill, chairman of the High Point Village Residents Association, said:

"The difficulties we face within the development are, I think, a consequence of increasingly dense housing development – necessitated by the rapidly expanding population here in London – and simplistic and naive planning policy on the part of councils."

Evening Standard: "Vince Cable: London house price boom is dangerous and unsustainable"

Link to web site

"House prices soaring at 10 per cent a month in London are 'dangerous and unsustainable', Business Secretary Vince Cable has warned.

"He said the capital was in the grip of an 'extreme problem' of affordability, with both property values and rents spiralling out of the reach of many families.

"Mr Cable told The Standard:

“What is happening is not just that house prices are rising, they are accelerating, and that clearly is dangerous and unsustainable,”

"There is an extreme problem of affordability, particularly but not only in London. Families on middle and low incomes can’t get anywhere near an average property in London. This is a very worrying trend."

Opening Thurs 24 Oct: "London Designer Outlet is set to become a shopping and leisure destination of choice." (Chosen over Hammerson's Brent Cross and Bicester Designer Village, presumably.)

Link to web site

"Opening 24 October, London Designer Outlet will be home to over 85 outlets, restaurants and cafes, as well as a 9-screen Cineworld complex, in an exciting, vibrant, contemporary and cosmopolitan environment. [Too many adjectives. Ed.]

"It is the destination for outlet shopping, eating and entertainment in the capital - open seven-days-a-week, morning to night.

"Get bargains from leading high street names, aspirational labels and lifestyle brands at outlet prices of up to 70% off RRP. Dine in relaxed and stylish surroundings; choose from a diverse selection of restaurants & cafés offering the best in 'around the world cuisine'."

"... London Designer Outlet is the only designer outlet within the M25, easily reached from central London by public transport, served by three tube lines and a main-line train line, as well as by London buses. It is only 12 minutes from Marylebone train station, and one km from the north circular road (A406) by car." [Whereas Brent Cross remains an out-of-town, car-based shopping centre.]

Labour Party's Six Conditions for Hammerson's London Shopping Centre Investment

Link to Croydon Advertiser

"LABOUR'S parliamentary candidate for Croydon Central says she is the politician who will ensure the town 'wins' with Westfield/Hammerson.

"Sarah Jones has made the £1-billion regeneration of the Whitgift Centre the focus of her campaign, ahead of general election in 2015, ... saying:

"We're in a housing crisis, and it's absolutely right to ensure such a significant regeneration project does its bit to address it."

"Plans for the 1.4-million sq.ft. development are expected to be submitted to the council next month.

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Link to Croydon Advertiser

"Conservative Party dismisses Labour Party's rival Hammerson Westfield plan as 'plain wrong'"

"CROYDON Central MP Gavin Barwell has described Sarah Jones's six-point Westfield/Hammerson plan as 'a mixed bag of things that are already happening and the plain wrong'.

"... He continued:

"She's wrong to argue that this should make up 40 per cent of all the housing built: what people want is to be able to afford their own home, and the Government and Croydon Council should be helping them to do that.

Labour’s instinct to load more and more costs onto developers is why a scheme like this never came forward when they were running the council. Sarah doesn’t appear to have learnt that lesson."

Brent & Kilburn Times, Evening Standard, and Ham & High

Barnet Times: "Plans for £4billion Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration submitted by developers Hammerson and Standard Life Investments." (Late.)

Link to web site

"Plans for a £4billion regeneration that could transform Brent Cross into “world class” retail destination and town centre have been submitted to Barnet Council.

"The application, the biggest in the history of north west London, was handed to Barnet Council by shopping centre owners Hammerson and its project partner Standard Life Investments this week.

"Under the plans, more than 7,500 homes would be built and more than 27,000 jobs created in a huge new town centre with retail, dining, leisure and community facilities."

Hammerson: "Big brands join Brent Cross"

Link to web site

"Hammerson and Standard Life Investments UK Shopping Centre Trust, joint owners of Brent Cross Shopping Centre, have signed two new international retailers, Kiehls and Kipling.

"Securing the new brands coincides with Brent Cross undergoing a £1m refurbishment of Mall 5, home to the centre’s aspirational brands including Russell & Bromley, Whistles and Jaeger.

"The new investment will enhance the shopper experience with new finishes, speciality catering and facilities and is part of a sales-led strategy which will continue to introduce additional new brands to Brent Cross."

LB of Brent: "Drama in the Drum" (LB of Barnet: "Planning in the Bin" [Best we could do])

Barnet Press, Barnet Times, Ham & High, and Wembley Observer

(First letter should say "£200 million")

(Click to enlarge, sometimes again to magnify)

Sick Public Relations Company 'FRANK PR' takes on Hammerson's Brent Cross, Croydon Centrale, Reading Oracle and Southampton WestQuay ("What's that?" "Oh, SLICK.")

Link to 'The Drum'

"Hammerson, the FTSE 100 real estate company, has appointed Frank PR to look after public relations for four of its shopping centres, [to] attempt to establish Brent Cross in North London, Centrale in Croydon, The Oracle in Reading and WestQuay in Southampton as lifestyle destinations, as well as manage crisis communications. [Plenty of scope there, then.]

Alex Grier, Frank PR's managing director, said:

"... We look forward to ..."

Stephen Brown, UK marketing director at Hammerson added:

"... and we look forward to ..."

Hammerson has been forced in the past month to reiterate its commitment to regeneration of city centres through retail, after cancelling projects worth a combined £1.4bn in Sheffield and Swansea."  [Not to mention Brent Cross Cricklewood.]

Sun 13 Oct: Finchley Society railway route walk

Finchley Society Walk Oct 2013

Evening Standard: "Dramatic rise in cyclists in London road 'revolution'"

Link to web site

"The number of Londoners cycling to work every day has more than doubled in the past decade, according to a new study.

"A 'cycling revolution' map based on the research reveals that Hackney, Lambeth and Wandsworth have the most cyclists. In Hackney, a fifth of residents in some areas cycle to work every day. Outer London boroughs showed less take-up."

ITN: "Mobile public space transforms part of north London"

Link to web site

"Part of north west London which has no town hall, no library, no square and not even a single bench has been brought to life with a public space towed around on the back of a bike.

"Spacemakers, which helps regenerate towns and cities created 'Cricklewood Town Square'. It is a mobile public space which roamed across the area reclaiming forgotten patches of land, and transforming them into civic spaces for everyone to use."

The green space in Cricklewood
that Hammerson wants to destroy
- in Phase One!

Wed 9 Oct: Friern Barnet Library: Railway Walk Slideshow

Northern Heights Walk

GOOD NEWS ON HOUSE PRICES: "Help to Buy will not drive up house prices, says minister"

Link to The Guardian

"People who think there is a housing bubble 'need to get out more', a Treasury minister has said, as he defended the Help to Buy scheme on its launch day.

"Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, dismissed concerns that the scheme offering 95% mortgages backed by the state will push up house prices too much.

"He told Sky News that those criticising the scheme 'need to get out more' to areas of the country where house prices were not rising quickly."

GOOD NEWS ON HOUSE PRICES: "David Cameron: 95 per cent mortgages will make 'dream of home ownership a reality'"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"Tens of thousands of home buyers will today be offered 95 per cent mortgages by state-owned banks in a move which David Cameron says will make the 'dream of home ownership a reality'.

"Mr Cameron said:

"From today, thousands of people will be able to get a foot on the housing ladder by applying for the new Help to Buy mortgage guarantee. If you've got 5 per cent of the funds for a mortgage deposit, we’re providing a guarantee to the banks to help you get the rest.

Help to Buy is going to make the dream of home ownership a reality for many who would otherwise have been shut out. This goes right to the heart of my vision for Britain – a country where everyone who works hard can get on in life."

Local residents react to Hammerson's new Brent Cross Cricklewood planning application

"These are the oddly hilarious faces of spooked visitors at the Nightmares Fear Factory in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The house is said to stand on the site of a former coffin factory where, legend has it, the owner was killed when a stack of caskets fell on him. Visitors are photographed at the moment they spot what seems to be a car full of ghosts about to run them over. The attraction is said to be so frightening that visitors have a safety word – 'nightmares' – which they can utter at any time to be escorted out." - The Guardian

Hammerson's Section 73 variation of existing Brent Cross planning permission approval:
Stakeholder feedback:

GOOD NEWS ON HOUSE PRICES: "Help to Buy: demand may outstrip supply as lenders brace for stampede"

Link to The Guardian

"More than 600,000 homes on the market are eligible for inclusion in the £12bn second phase of the Help to Buy scheme, according to the latest in a series of surveys leading to predictions that lenders will be flooded by pent-up demand for the government-backed mortgages.

"Details of the 95% mortgages, which are available to existing homeowners as well as first-time buyers, are to be unveiled by the chancellor, with some banks expected to invite loan applications within hours of the Tuesday announcement. The second phase of the flagship scheme to give more first-time buyers and others wider access to the housing market was brought forward by three months, with a report from high street bank Santander claiming that up to 1.7 million people are planning to use the scheme."

"... Many experts have argued that the government should ditch the second phase of Help to Buy, because they fear it will artificially inflate house prices too much by ramping up demand at a faster rate than the supply of homes coming on the UK market."

Barnet Press, Barnet Times, Brent & Kilburn Times, and Ham & High

Barnet Press: letters.barnet@nlhnews.co.uk

Ham & High letters
editorial@hamhigh.co.uk

Good News on House Prices: Evening Standard: "Pace of housebuilding is fastest for almost 10 years"

Link to web site

"Britain's builders are putting up homes at the fastest pace for nearly a decade as the industry struggles to keep up with revived demand, the latest evidence from the sector showed today.

"Residential construction activity jumped at the sharpest rate since November 2003 during September, according to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, as the Government’s Help to Buy scheme and cheaper mortgages send buyers flooding into the market."

[Reposted] Wed 2 Oct: Finchley Society railway route slideshow (repeated on Wed. 9 Oct at Friern Barnet Library)

Finchley Society Slideshow Oct 2013

"£18.2m scheme to extend Brent Cross Light Railway, promoted by Barnet Council" (Wish, wish)

Link to BBC Lancashire web site

"Blackpool's tram system is to be extended in an £18.2m scheme, and work could begin in 2015.

"The tramway will be extended from the promenade to Blackpool North railway station.

"The Department for Transport will contribute £16.4m towards the project, with Blackpool Council paying the rest."

"Hammerson don't design houses. But if they did..."

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The façade of the derelict mid-19th century property appears to have come loose from the roof and slid down into the front garden, leaving part of the upper floor exposed.

"It is, however, an illusion created by the 28-year-old artist Alex Chinneck, using materials, manufacturing skills and professional services donated by 10 companies."

Evening Standard: "Boris Johnson demands help on London homes: Mayor calls on George Osborne to do more to tackle crisis"

Link to web site

"Speaking to the conference hall in Manchester, Mr Johnson warned about the 'massive affordability gap' in the housing market, and his concern that too many ordinary Londoners are now even struggling to raise rental deposits. He said:

"We need to do so much more; we should consider allowing companies to make tax-free loans for rental deposits, as they can for childcare. George, I hope I am not exceeding my brief if I urge you to look at the baleful effects of stamp duty in London, which is stamping on the fingers of those who are trying to climb the property ladder."

"The Mayor, who has said he will deliver 100,000 new homes in the capital by the end of his second term, urged the Government to reduce restrictions on local authorities so they could build more."

Brent Cross Cricklewood area London borough in transparent democracy move (funnily enough, it's not Barnet)

[Reposted] Barnet Press: "New Blow to High Streets" (and new 'new blow' later)

"TRADERS are slamming plans to extend Brent Cross Shopping Centre, claiming it will be a nail in the coffin for high street town centres.

"... Plans for the centre include 20 new shops, a large department store and improved parking facilities.

"... Usama Siddique, Chairman of Barnet Traders Association, said:

"A lot of small businesses are going to pack up because of this, and it will have a detrimental effect on all the centres across the borough.

Big shopping centres surround Barnet, yet the council will not provide any more facilities to improve the town centres. All they have done is install controlled parking zones, with no free parking anywhere.

North Finchley and Golders Green centres are just coming back from the brink, with more shops opening, but this extension will affect them badly - I think approving these plans will be the wrong decision."

"... Geoffrey Davis, president of Golders Green Chamber of Commerce and member of Temple Fortune Town Centre Forum, said:

"If Barnet Council approved the plans, it would be disastrous for town centres.

Shopping malls are slowly killing town centres, but I think that Barnet Council feel the same as us, and will turn it down."

"... If Barnet Council approve the plans, work will start next year, and will not be completed until Christmas 1999.

"... A spokesman for Barnet Council said:

"The council is committed to the widest possible consultation with residents and traders who will be affected by the plans.

"The council is now preparing a summary of the proposals, and residents and traders will be asked to have their say. The views of the community will then be considered by councillors, as part of the planning process."

(22 May 1996)

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The plans were rejected by the government in 2000, and Hammerson eventually lost an appeal.

Link to April 2012:

"Evening Standard: A bigger Brent Cross back on the Hammerson agenda"

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Link to HOME (see all posts).

GOOD NEWS ON HOUSE PRICES: "Market recovery is firmly established: London house prices forecast to rise by 43.5% by 2018"

Link to:
Centre for Economics and Business Research

"Despite concern in some quarters, the housing market is being driven largely by fundamentals – demographics and the economy – not speculation. Talk of housing bubble is premature. A slowly recovering economy, the domestic population’s need for homes, slow supply growth and improving credit availability are all supporting house prices.

"Even London’s prodigious house price growth, expected to be 6.9% this year, is being driven by the fundamental fact that people want to live in the capital with its employment and cultural opportunities.

"Policy drivers will continue to provide a boost. As of October 2013, three months earlier than initially planned, potential homebuyers will be able to apply for assistance from the Help to Buy scheme, which will provide up to £12 billion of mortgage guarantees. We expect this will lift house price growth by increasing the availability of mortgage financing.

"The Bank of England’s Governor has said base rates will be kept on hold until unemployment falls below 7.0%, suggesting rates are unlikely to rise before 2016. This forward guidance should anchor mortgage costs and so support house prices."

[Reposted] David Atkins' little pipeline

Hammersons official Brent Cross pipeline: 

• Lettable Area m2 = 87,000 
• Earliest start = 2015 
• Potential completion = 2018 
• Estimated cost to complete = £290m 
• Estimated annual income = £24m

Daily Telegraph: "Amazon regional depots deliver blow to embattled high street"

Link to web site

"Amazon is stepping up its battle against Britain's high street chains by opening a series of small, regional distribution depots under the brand 'Amazon Logistics' to speed up customer deliveries.

"... In each case, Amazon is teaming up with smaller companies such as City Sprint and Transline, which take the product to customers' doors.

"The name Amazon Logistics first appeared on deliveries earlier this summer, surprising rivals in the distribution business and customers alike.

"In a statement, Amazon said the expansion was a way to create more 'capacity and flexibility' in its network, and was part of an overall £1bn UK investment."

RT (Putin-vision): "Smoggy London: Air pollution hits new high as UK govt ignores toxic issue"

Adam Smith Institute: "Burning Down the House: Why Help-to-Buy will stoke a housing bubble, and risks taxpayers' money with no promise of a return"

Link to PDF on web site

"Help-to-Buy will not end the housing crisis. The government’s plans to increase liquidity in the housing market will do little to solve the UK’s long-run housing supply shortage – and do much to aggravate high housing prices while improperly using the state as a risk transfer mechanism.

"Liberalisation, not intervention, is the best long-term solution for the distorted British housing market.

"... A number of ... supply-side solutions have been proposed by the ASI and/or its affiliates on numerous occasions in the recent past, including:

• releasing limited amounts of farmland for suburban development,
• radical liberalisation of urban planning laws (proposed by ASI Fellow Tom Papworth), and
• the abolition of mandatory affordable housing provision in new housing development (proposed by ASI Fellow Preston Byrne).

"The full contents of these arguments do not bear repeating here. What such solutions have in common, however, is that the obstacles to their implementation are political and regulatory, not economic."

The Brent Cross Waste Incinerator: what it could be like...

"Video of the process used to treat residual household rubbish, extract recyclable material and divert away from landfill..."

"This video shows how NEAT has designed, built and commissioned the UK’s first commercial-scale 13MWatt-e energy recovery facility for New Earth Solutions, alongside its existing 250kilotonne Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facility in Bristol..."

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The above shows relevant waste processing technology, but those companies have no connection with the Brent Cross Cricklewood area.

Unrelated to them, a shell company registered in the Isle of Man, called 'Clean Power Properties Limited', has listed 'Cricklewood' as one of its desired waste incinerator locations.

It is also trying to obtain planning permission for a 'Willesden' waste incinerator, in the London Borough of Ealing.

Link to Clean Power Properties Ltd.
(Generic image from that web site)

Link to the Brent Cross Cricklewood incinerator

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As luck would have it, Hammerson already has planning permission for a Brent Cross waste incinerator, from the London Borough of Barnet...

(Click on image)

... And even wants to put a restaurant on top of it ...

(Click on image)

(We apologise for Hammerson's stupidity.)

"Eric Pickles attacks councils putting motorists off high streets"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"Mr Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, said that 'draconian' parking policies and pointless 'street clutter' have led to motorists abandoning town centres.

"He is calling on local authorities to ban speed bumps and parking bollards that put people off travelling to local shops.

"Town Halls must also reduce parking charges that 'undermine the vitality of town centres', Mr Pickles added.

"The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will this week issue new planning guidance, that he hopes will force councils to make high streets more car-friendly."

As the Brent Cross developers extend their planning permission to include "demolition", is Brent Cross Shopping Centre worth Grade 2 listing? (Er, no.)

Link to The Guardian

"... A 650-metre long white steel and mirror-glass temple to shopping, the Milton Keynes mall is one of the most recently listed projects in the show, receiving grade II status in 2010 – a move described as 'utter madness' by the British Property Federation.

"Its owners were furious at the decision, saying the listing would 'prevent evolution and growth' of a building they described as 'nondescript and characterless'. But in the eyes of English Heritage, the project represented a rare example of 'rigour, consistency, luminosity and user-friendliness'. [Please Sir, please Sir! Brent Cross is that!]

" 'There has been a general drift towards fussiness and bling, whereas we were just trying to make it clear and open,' says its architect Christopher Woodward, who hasn't been back to the building since 1982. 'I don't want to be upset. When people tell me what's happened, I have to put my hands over my ears and go "la la la"'." [That's what Barnet and Hammerson have done for the last decade at Brent Cross!]

Ham & High, and the Barnet Times

Barnet Times: timesletters@london.newsquest.co.uk

BBC: "guided busway 'good for the economy' but rail link would have been more attractive, transport minister said"

Link to web site

"Norman Baker the transport minister yesterday officially opened the eight-mile (13.4km) mainly guided route, which runs along a stretch of old railway line.

"Mr Baker said:

"It's a very good day for the economy of the town.

I'll be astonished if this doesn't work, because this is going to cut journey times by half between Luton and Dunstable and it's going to be a regular, predictable service which won't be subject to traffic jams."

"When asked if a rail link would have been a more attractive alternative to the busway, he agreed, but added that was not the choice he faced on becoming a minister in 2010:

"The choice I had was either to agree to this and provide the £80m funding, or to cancel it.

It would have been detrimental to the town to have cancelled it and I think, having looked at it today, it will be beneficial to Luton, environmentally and economically."

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Luton Today:
"VIDEO: Luton and Dunstable busway
officially opens"

Note: video advert beforehand may not have any audio level control