All articles by Clayton Hirst
-
News
UK imports US urban tax plan
Government plans to include US financing scheme in forthcoming legislation to promote regeneration
-
News
Energy regulator secures Millbank HQ in ICI deal
British chemicals giant ICI has shelled out £5m to leave its lease at its Millbank headquarters in London. The cash payment was made to Ofgem, the energy regulator, to take on the 18-year lease with the Prudential , the building s freeholder. ICI is leaving Imperial Chemical House, which has ...
-
Insight
Track and yield
Railtrack Property director John O Brien has taken control of a development programme larger than that of Land Securities. But this isn t enough he plans to crank it up further.
-
News
Soros plans £40m plunge into self-storage sector
Finance guru is the latest high-profile investor in emerging sector, while new operators enter the market
-
News
Dot coms and telecoms scour West End for HQs
Growing internet and telecoms companies need office space but many landlords don t want them as tenants
-
News
Ex-cricketer is latest to cash in on e-property explosion
Quoted property companies are jumping on the dot com bandwagon, leading to gargantuan leaps in share prices
-
News
Hines touches down in Britain
American property billionaire Gerald Hines planning to set up company to cash in on air property
-
News
BBC’s property review may rule out South Bank move
Greg Dyke, who will take his seat as director-general of the BBC on Monday, is to conduct a fast-track review of the corporation s London property requirements. The move could lead to the BBC ditching its plans to move to a Lord Foster -designed building at More-London Bridge on the ...
-
News
Mapeley brings in Morgan Stanley to beef up PFI team
Mapeley , the George Soros-backed consortium set up to bid for the £2bn Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise estate, is gearing up for a big push into corporate outsourcing. Headed by former banker Robin Priest , the group this week appointed Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as financial adviser to ...
-
News
'The Burns and Silver Show' begins its 17th series
John Burns and Simon Silver buy tired buildings in 'off-pitch' central London for imaginative refurbishment. Clayton Hirst finds out how their simple strategy has led analysts to rate Derwent Valley Holdings as a 'best-run' property company
-
News
Rail sale under fire
Lobbyists call for government moratorium on the sale of £170m of British Rail properties
-
News
New Euro ruling scuppers UK regeneration plans
Brussels clamps down on £200m PIP grant while delaying approval of £785m Assisted Areas map
-
News
ICI axes record West End deal
Chemicals group drops move to City & West End s flagship Cleveland House scheme over fears for image
-
News
MEPs’ last-minute bid to save gap funding
A group of Labour MEPs are working on an eleventh-hour plan to save a raft of regeneration projects in the north-east from extinction. Fronted by Alan Donnelly, the north-eastern team of Labour MEPs is attempting to safeguard short-term gap funding for schemes in Teesside and Tyneside from European Commission ...
-
News
Easter surprise hatched by aggressive US fund
JE Robert, the aggressive US fund that is mounting a determined effort to break into the UK market, is preparing to bid for Capital & Regional Properties industrial division. Run from the UK by Russell Platt, JE Robert s $1.5bn (£940m) European fund is considering a bid ...
-
News
DTZ increases tiger holdings
DTZ Holdings is about to cement its presence in the emerging Asian market by taking equity stakes in two real estate consultants. The move, which is expected to complete on 1 January, will see DTZ take a 20% stake in CY Leung number three in Hong ...
-
News
Brussels’ state aid purge threatens £785m grants
Some of Britain s poorest areas could lose out on up to £785m of regeneration grants due to a new row between the government and Brussels. The European Commission last week rejected for the third time a proposed map of Assisted Areas zones to which the ...
-
News
Government to close Stamp Duty loophole
A loophole that allows property trading without Stamp Duty payments is set to be closed by the government next year. A paragraph overlooked in this month s pre-Budget report from Chancellor Gordon Brown warns that next year s Finance Bill could clamp down on the use of specially created ...
-
News
REStQ to buy French firm in European comeback
Richard Ellis St Quintin is in advanced talks to buy French surveying firm Bourdais Expertises, marking the start of a drive to rebuild its international operations. A source close to the talks revealed that the two firms have held a series of high-level discussions , and ...
-
News
Brussels forces policy rewrite
The Government is frantically rewriting its policies on grants for derelict sites in a last-ditch attempt to resolve a row with the European Commission. John Prescott s DETR last week appointed management consultant KPMG to help find an alternative to the Partnership Investment Programme (PIP) funding regime, which ...