All Professional comment articles – Page 18
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ProfessionalOnline tool can aid developers
This week, Carter Jonas launched its Live Local Plan Monitor as an interactive online platform, which analyses adopted and emerging local plans, consultations and housing land supply. We then interpret this information to identify key opportunities for housing and commercial development, to assist our clients in their decision-making.
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Professional
Standardised insurance pitfalls
The insurance industry has had a truly terrible pandemic.
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Professional
The power of local community
Our local communities have never before been so important in our day-to-day lives. With restrictions on movement and so many more people working from home, the past six months have seen local communities build strong connections and discover what is on their doorsteps.
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Professional
How can flexible workspace meet business infrastructure demands?
Corporates are facing significant challenges in managing office footprint in the wake of Covid-19, with new safety measures, worker preferences and an uncertain financial future each creating complicated pressures.
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Professional
Can a well-written S106 agreement make a proposal more acceptable?
The government’s housing white paper is creating waves throughout the Home Counties, encouraging a stack of proposals for new settlements in the countryside. Many of these proposals will be bitterly fought, particularly by local residents and councillors.
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Professional
Wellbeing starts with community
Community life – our relationship with the people living in our neighbourhoods – is crucial to our health and wellbeing. Community underlines the link between the built environment and quality of life, and it is intimately connected to the design and infrastructure of the buildings around us.
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Professional
Housing can boost young people's life prospects
This summer, the LSE Centre for Economic Performance released a report entitled ‘Covid-19 and social mobility’, which said Britons under the age of 25 “face declining social mobility unless bold moves are made to create a fairer society”.
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Professional
Improved workplace acoustics make sound business sense
Working in a noisy office environment can have a serious impact on employees’ mental and physical health.
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Professional
Were the changes to UCO and PDR given due consideration?
This summer, the government announced sweeping changes to the use classes order (UCO) and permitted development rights (PDR), hailed by the prime minister as part of “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War”.
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Professional
Building launches can still go ahead
Since March, many landlords and building owners have looked to market their vacant space via virtual launches. These were an essential marketing tool during lockdown and they still have their place.
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Professional
Landlords must act reasonably when pursuing possession proceedings
After a long six months, the stay on possession proceedings has finally been lifted, although this does not mean an immediate return to normality.
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Professional
How the real estate industry can support women during Covid-19
Covid-19 has created challenges for us all, but there is growing evidence that women have been impacted particularly hard.
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Professional
It’s vital to prioritise wellbeing when working from home
Important factors are air quality, lighting, hydration, scheduling breaks, nature walks and quiet spaces.
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Professional
Property market has to put stronger laundering checks in place
The case of Mansoor Mahmood Hussain, who the National Crime Agency (NCA) believes laundered millions through his property empire, demonstrates the huge gaps in protection against money laundering that still exist in the property market.
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Professional
A real mixed bag for property investors
The mood among UK property investors is fearful as Covid-19 has put particular pressures on them in office, retail and buy-to-let properties.
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Professional
Experiential diversity makes high streets the place to be
Generating excitement and activity in town centres depends on an active engagement with the public.
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Professional
What should the government do to reform the business rates system?
No tax should be so high that it directly impacts companies’ decisions as to whether they open or close their bricks-and-mortar estate.
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Professional
Who will meet the costs of fire safety work to residential blocks?
In July, the government published its draft Building Safety Bill, heralding the biggest changes to building safety for nearly 40 years. The reforms will cover any building that is at least 18m or more than six storeys above ground level, containing two or more dwellings.
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Professional
The importance of outside space has never been more apparent
The inclusion of outdoor space in commercial schemes has always played an important role in balancing the built form and the natural, providing space for movement around buildings as well as a place simply to sit and be.
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Professional
Homeowners facing External Wall System (EWS) policy woes
Three million homeowners are currently unable to sell their properties as they do not have an external wall system (EWS) certificate verifying the fire resilience of their properties. This is grossly unfair and suggests government policy is ineffective.
