Peter Bill
Peter Bill is a former property editor, journalist, columnist for the Evening Standard from 2007-15 and author of Planet Property. You can follow him on Twitter @peterproperty
InsightSpinning beach ball Babylon
On a breezy spring day in 2013, I gazed out upon a giant beach ball, tethered to the roof of a building adjacent to Old Street roundabout, north of the Square Mile.
- Insight
Time to restore trust in valuers
In July, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) directed four big accountants to set apart their audit arms by 2024.
- Insight
Factoids and housing crisis fixes
Rodding the planning drains may improve the flow of applications. But Boris Johnson’s claim that reforms contained in ‘Planning for the Future’ will increase the volume of new homes is humbug.
- Insight
Diversity goes beyond box ticking
Hiring more women? Tick. Hiring more BAME people? Tick. These days, there is no point in even pitching for work without slides proving your diversity and inclusion credentials.
- Insight
Learning from the past master
A pity Richard Desmond did not follow the late Tony Pidgley’s footwork when trying to double the size on his now-notorious scheme for 1,500 flats at Westferry Printworks on the Isle of Dogs – if only to understand how Berkeley got permission to build 1,280 flats on a plot one ...
- Online
Obituary: Tony Pidgley – ‘the best teacher in the business’
Planet Property author and former EG editor Peter Bill shares his memories of Berkeley Group boss, Tony Pidgley, who it was announced on Friday has died.
- Insight
Listing ships and a circus
David Atkins is still at the wheel at Hammerson until a replacement chief executive is found. On Monday, Rob Noel entered the map room of the drifting retail giant as incoming chairman. The former Landsec boss is now in charge of plotting the future direction of the listing ship, with ...
- Insight
Don’t go boldly into the storm
Next Wednesday, 27 May, British Land is likely to declare a stonking loss for the year to March, caused by valuation shrinkage within the £4.8bn retail portfolio.
- Insight
The guessing games are in full swing
As suggested here on 27 March, the level of grace under Covid-19 pressure will define reputations post-pandemic: that decency, or lack of it, will be remembered on the far side. Four weeks closer to the far side, grace and its twin virtue, decency, continue to predominate.
- Insight
Time to show grace under pressure
“Mummy? Daddy? What did you do during the time of coronavirus?”
- Insight
You have to feel for LSH staff
Feel for Lambert Smith Hampton staff. By the time you read this, one of two things will have happened: either LSH will have been acquired by reclusive Dane John Bengt Moeller; or the 950 staff will still be in the unwanted hands of estate agency group Countrywide, which has been ...
- Insight
To live or die on the high street
Additional business rate relief for shops will do as much good as giving alms to a beggar. Over 600,000 poor beggars already get relief in some form or another. Rateable values are referenced to rents, so rates will fall, eventually.
- Insight
Why we’re all Sneetches at heart
The Sneetches by Dr Seuss is a parody of prejudice and diversity – both current property sector preoccupations.
- Insight
Nimby policies to attract voters
Plop: the first general election leaflet hit the doormat last Saturday. A tightly targeted anti-development screed from Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and The Weald. The loyalist successor to batty Ann Widdecombe is clearly not a deux with the Conservative target of building 300,000 homes a year.
- Insight
Questions for WeWork characters
“It goes to character,” say American TV lawyers when challenged for asking overly personal questions of the defendant.
- Insight
Stop building castles in the air
There is a housing crisis. More homes are needed. Private developers build 85% of all new homes. They complain of planning red tape and land shortages. Red tape must be cut and more land zoned for housing. Developers will then build more homes, won’t they? No.
- Insight
Towering ambitions in Docklands
At 7pm on Friday 9 February 1996, I was one floor up from Property Week, working at Building magazine.
- Insight
The lioness and her pussycat
PLP’s lead architect on 22 Bishopgate, Karen Cook, is a fierce defender of her craft, according to Sir Stuart Lipton, creator of the 1.4m sq ft City tower, which has just topped out at 945ft. “She is a lion; a brilliant architect,” he says. “But every lion needs a lion ...
- Insight
Something stirs in Wirral Waters
Something stirs in the long-still Wirral Waters. Dutch pension fund APG is close to taking a punt on John Whittaker’s Peel Holdings’ plan (pictured) to regenerate 500 acres of Birkenhead docks, aka Wirral Waters – far more mellifluous.
- News
JLL pulls out of Brunei contract
JLL has unilaterally withdrawn from managing nearly £2bn of hotel assets owned by the Sultan of Brunei.
