All Blogs articles – Page 20
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Blogs
2009 - not the year of the Tiger
As we lurch head long towards the fast falling closing curtain of 2009 it is a time to reflect and look towards the dawning of 2010. It has been a strange year of surprising scandals – Tiger Woods; shocking revelations – Tiger Woods; and surprising retirements – Tiger Woods! ...
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Blogs
"The greatest joy in nature is the absence of man"
Stricken Polar bears star on X-Factor; Sting is multi-tasking saving rainforests and launching a new album; and our planet gets simultaneously hotter/cooler/neither depending on the scientist/interest group/newspaper/TV show/blogger. What of Copenhagen? The BBC blithely reports that Copenhagen is about "demonstrations, disruption, deadlock". Ban Ki Moon pronounces with a stunning grasp ...
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Blogs
Barrie blogs on `childish’ Asda
I loathe censorship and I hate bullies. So the news that Savills has been sidelined by Asda after one of its executives voiced legitimate views on proposed new planning rules puts the store at the bottom of my Christmas card list. To recap, Savills’ director of retail planning Jeremy Hinds ...
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Blogs
Landlords: work in partnership with tenants on energy efficiency, get better leases
The introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment looks set to provide yet another catalyst for landlords and tenants to disagree. Lawyers are rubbing their hands together in glee at the prospect of the complicated contracts required to distinguish how government-recycled revenues will be recycled back multiple tenants, all performing differently ...
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Blogs
“Real-Time” Search and the property market
Harold Wilson was once attributed with saying: “A week is a long time in politics”. Over the past week this could also be said of the world of search engines - as first Google and then, just days later, Yahoo announced that they were both launching “real-time” ...
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Blogs
I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down
At the UN summit in Copenhagen, the weekend doesn’t mean rest from the cyclone of climate change activities hitting the amassed delegates and local population. Sunday was no different, and in search of a change from the sterility of the official conference venue, the Bella Centre, I visited the Climate ...
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Blogs
Winter awards rush is good for us
Winter is upon us and it seems to bring a never ending series of awards dinners. For all industries they give a measure of who is at the peak of their game and for the entertainment industry it provides a relatively cheap source for extra entertainment programmes! Well, having just ...
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Blogs
Roger Southam and Sir Trevor McDonald - together at last!
Managing agent and consumer advocate, Roger Southam , hits the small screen tonight on ITV with Trevor McDonald. ‘Every little helps’… ‘Why Pay More?’ … ‘Good food for less’… the major retailers are convincing us that they have quality products for a reasonable price through sassy slogans and marketing jargon. ...
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Blogs
Man in the Mirror
My desk is nearly clear, I’m nearly done and the sustainable office Christmas tree has been on all night again. Soon I’ll be gone. But don’t get too excited, I don’t have a terminal disease and no one’s uncovered my insider dealing or illegal human trafficking either. I’m just about ...
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Blogs
Red Ken vs blue blood
Just back from chairing the Movers Shakers breakfast at the Dorchester, where panellists Ken Livingstone, Adrian Wyatt, Sir Bob Kerslake and Liz Peace did the 300-strong audience proud. Ken was on the best form of all – slating the Prince of Wales for intervening in Chelsea Barracks. ...
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Blogs
Tighter regulation required for energy efficiency – or just more common sense
CEOs and Heads of Sustainability convened yesterday at the Copenhagen Communique event to talk about the part business has to play in setting society on a path low carbon path. To briefly explain – the Copenhagen Communique is a statement, signed by over 900 business leaders, calling for a strong ...
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Blogs
Europe showcases green cities
After a stumbling and content-less speech, delivered in monotone by Elisabet Falemo, State Secretary to the Swedish Minister for the Environment, I was ready to be underwhelmed by the European green cities showcase. In fact I was ready for a snooze. But I hung in there and it was worth ...
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Blogs
Giles Barrie’s Pre-Budget Report blog shows little to turn property on
For property the reaction to the Pre-Budget report will be pretty lukewarm. Congratulations first to the business centres lobby for winning an extension to empty rates relief for another year for premises with a rateable value below £18,000. Housebuilders, too, have won a desperately needed promise to reduce the `impact ...
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Blogs
Search engines – Property - Something Digital – Blah, Blah, Blah
Everyone knows about Google. Most of us use it on a daily basis and each time we do the phrases and words that we use are recorded and collated by the world’s favourite search engine. This information is then made available to businesses and individuals choosing to advertise on Google ...
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Blogs
Patrick Fox on how things are shaping up for Bray Fox Smith
Well things are hotting up at BrayFoxSmith... IT, without tempting fate, seems to be running more smoothly now so we have been able to concentrate on real money generating work. Our head of IT, Rob, has had a better couple of months in respect of problem solving and general IT ...
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Blogs
Climate talks start today in Copenhagen
The 15th UN Conference of Parties, COP15, kicks off today in Copenhagen. The aim of the conference is to deliver an agreement limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees C – the temperature that would give us a realistic chance of avoiding “catastrophic” climate change. The talks ...
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Blogs
If the Tories don't get in I'm leaving the country
Anyone who has read the Ellandi blog will know that I am pretty left of centre for a property chap, heck I'll even admit to the fact that I was actually a card carrying member of the Labour Party until well into my 30's. Which is why I really must ...
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Blogs
Pre-budget blues for UDCs
Next Wednesday’s pre-budget report will not be the most significant for the property industry – but could have serious repercussions for the regeneration world. I am hearing increasing speculation that the Government will next week announce that at least one of the UK’s three urban development corporations is to be ...
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Blogs
Prince Charles, Boris Johnson, the Candys & The Sunday Times - the news never stops
I don't normally spend Saturday lunchtime loitering underneath the famous clock at Waterloo station - but this weekend I was there, in my football kit. Why? Because I was due to meet the Sunday Times to hand over documents relating to one of the property stories of the year. This, ...
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Blogs
Residential Market - failed to produce any meaningful moves
Like commercial property, many of the concerns overhanging the market are weighing on residential investors minds despite the well documented lack of supply. Consequently the market failed to produce any meaningful moves. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed giving the FSA more powers to police the UK mortgage ...
