All articles by Liz Peace
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InsightWomen aren’t property’s problem
Since 2015, Real Estate Balance has made great progress in tacking gender inequality in the industry.
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InsightReal Estate Balance’s Liz Peace on adopting the right mindset for life sciences innovation
The real estate industry seems to display a lemming-like tendency to follow a fad. Once it was shopping centres, then student accommodation, followed by big sheds and logistics. And now it is life sciences.
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InsightThe ideal city is not a numbers game
I was recently reacquainting myself with an intriguing painting in the Ducal Palace in Urbino, entitled the Ideal City (late 15th century, artist unknown but possibly Piero della Francesca).
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NewsHeritage can help high streets
Back in 2005, a report by English Heritage suggested that locating retail in a quirky heritage building actually increased its appeal and raised footfall, which made it sound as if this could be a really good way of breathing some new life into our declining high streets.
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InsightLondon’s industrial land dilemma
My crash course in commercial property, when I joined the industry in 2002, taught me that there were three principal types: office, retail and industrial.
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InsightWe must prove that we matter
A few weeks ago, courtesy of Real Estate Balance and Savills, I had the pleasure of chairing a seminar about social mobility in the real estate sector.
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InsightA formula to rescue the high street
What I find depressing about the increasingly hysterical debate on the high street’s decline and campaigns to rescue retail is the assumption that the answer is to put high streets back to where they were a decade ago: full of a plethora of shops of variable quality and success.
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InsightWe need a single carbon plan
I am sure I am not the only person heartened by the inclusion in the prime minister’s post-Cummings ‘reset’ agenda of a renewed emphasis on green matters.
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InsightThe Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) conundrum is still not cracked
The night before the Planning White Paper was published, a colleague from the 2016 Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Review Group texted me in a state of excitement to say that one of the proposals was for an infrastructure levy, calculated as a fixed proportion of the value of development.
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InsightA government property revolution
At the end of December, my ‘tour’ as chair of the Government Property Agency (GPA) comes to an end. It seems like a good time, therefore, to reflect on why we were established in the first place, what we have achieved and what more remains to be done.
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InsightWe need positive news on HS2
I will declare straight away that I have a specific interest in seeing HS2 confirmed and supported by our ‘new’ Tory government. Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), of which I am the chairman, would face a very uncertain and different future if the HS2 station proposed for ...
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InsightProperty is a huge force for good
Back in the summer of 2001, I answered a job advert in The Times for the role of director-general of something called the British Property Federation.
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InsightDevelopment counsel for councils
I was at the conference of the District Councils’ Network a few weeks ago where Rishi Sunak, a very impressive junior minister from MHCLG, lauded district councils as being the engines and champions of economic growth.
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Insight2019 forecast: Liz Peace CBE
”I think retail will have an even tougher year and neither central nor local government, nor property owners or retailers, seem to be able to work out how to do anything about it”
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InsightBeing LandAid's chair has made me so proud
I’ve had a long association with LandAid, and one that gives me a huge sense of pride. I well recall Mike Slade telling me back in the early noughties when I was chief executive of the British Property Federation about his plans to turn a tiny charity, run by enthusiasts ...
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ProfessionalLooking at loyalty in a whole new way
Does your heart sink when one of your employees comes sheepishly into the office and announces that they have been offered a new job and will be off once they have worked their notice?
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InsightThe Lib Dems are on the right track with their property policies, but they need to be bolder
Party conference fatigue did not seem to be setting in for the Lib Dems this week, as they travelled up to Glasgow en masse and whipped out a string of policy proposals concerning the property industry.
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NewsConference talk: Local leaders with vision will be the key to devolutionary success
The mood of this year’s Labour Party conference has been unusually informal but a little subdued, which could well be a hangover from the excitement of last week’s referendum.
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InsightFederation at 50 looks back at lessons of history
The BPF (British Property Federation) celebrated its 50th birthday this week.
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InsightPoliticians: wake up to property’s potential
I don’t know what it used to be like before I joined the property industry in 2002, but I am sure we are more aware of what our politicians are up to these days. This was evidenced by the interest in next week’s pre-Budget report and the annual fever of ...
