Hull-based Spencer Group started phase two of work yesterday to refresh the Menai Bridge, ready for its 200^th anniversary.

Phase one of the refurbishment saw the closure of the bridge last October to allow for rigorous testing and development, including a £1.5m effort to repaint the entire main underdeck.

The second phase will deliver new permanent hangers after a detailed analysis detected a structural issue with the existing ones, with the 7.5T weight restriction for crossing the bridge to remain in place until work has completed.

Work will be carried out in a way that will not lead to a full closure of the bridge, while traffic management will be implemented in order to reduce disruption to local residents.

This construction programme has been developed by UK Highways A55, which operates and maintains the Menai Bridge on behalf of the Welsh Government.

The 417-metre suspension dates back to 1826 and was designed by engineer Thomas Telford. Thought to be the second oldest operational vehicular suspension bridge in the world, the Menai Suspension Bridge’s bicentenary is in 2026.

The post Menai Bridge 200th anniversary refresh begins appeared first on Place North West.

THIS WEEK

• SPECIAL REPORT: New Towns and nutrient neutrality. Labour and Conservatives float planning reforms. Are they worth your time?

FLUSHING OUT PLANNING REFORM

New Towns and nutrient neutrality

Both the Conservative government and Labour opposition are floating potential ways to mend what pretty much everyone agrees is a broken planning system.

You can tell a general election is coming: this week Labour was trailing a return of New Towns, the Conservatives took a swing at restrictive nutrient neutrality rules, and both were mulling the merits (or otherwise) of a switch towards a zoning/permitted development rights planning system. Let’s start with the controversial stuff.

New Towns encore

A call for more New Towns has a nice, decisive ring to it, recalling the era of post-war growth and optimism. Plus most people know what a New Town is – hiya Warrington, Skelmersdale, and Peterlee. Better still, since many will assume it means all the housing they don’t want on their own doorstep will go somewhere else miles away, it allows politicians and the public to be pro-housing without committing themselves to anything they might not like – so it’s brilliant politics.

Missed target

But is it a good idea? Kevin Logan’s team at Maccreanor Lavington is advising on Birkenhead’s rethink and the masterplan for Manchester’s Red Bank. He thinks intensification is a better idea. “My view is, we need to be actively building back into our towns and cities, utilising intensification and compact urban growth approaches. We need to prioritise existing communities, augmenting them with considered growth, which would bring vitality, social, and economic opportunities, and deliver the resources that are needed,” he says. “We need to stop now building on greenfield or the countryside – this space is crucially required for the growth of ecology, biodiversity and resilience. We need to wild the hell out of the countryside, and grow communities and their ecologies within their existing urbanity.”

Time consuming

Or try this. “New Towns rarely work – they can too easily become large soulless areas of residential development. We would be better directing policy and funds towards intervention in existing towns and cities,” says Kate Pix, regeneration director at Kajima Europe, currently at work in Rochdale and Knowsley.

Hugely expensive, very complicated to deliver, requiring masses of political commitment over several parliaments, diverting money and attention from existing run-down towns, and maybe not universally successful first time ’round – Subplot didn’t find anyone in the Northern planning or property world who thought the New Town idea had legs. Feel free to add your comments below the line.

Applause

However, what people did like was Labour apparently thinking hard about the planning system. “At least it shows a direction of travel from a potential new government that planning is a serious matter to be grappled with,” says Colliers head of planning Anthony Aitken. He adds that you could achieve much the same with urban extensions to existing towns, a proper five-year housing target, a review of Green Belt, and a rule requiring councils to keep their local strategic plans up to date. All of that is said to be in Labour’s mind too.

And the Conservatives?

Relaxing nutrient neutrality rules is regarded as an easy win. Developers say the rules have held up plans for 92 houses in a single scheme in Carlisle, and the government reckons in total up to 100,000 houses could have been stalled or stopped. To recap: EU rules dating from 1992 required planners to think about the impact of nitrates and phosphates created by new development (meaning fertilisers on land, and effluent from your toilets). Everything was fine until 2018 when the European Court re-interpreted this to mean if there was any risk of a bad outcome, you couldn’t do it. Soon afterwards Natural England issued guidance that amounted to a moratorium on new building, and here we are today. Labour doesn’t seem to object.

Removing the gold plate

Ministers have tabled amendments to the Levelling Up Bill to take us back to where we were before the gold-plating began. “Nobody is saying nutrient issues aren’t important, but no one concern can stand above everything else. There has to be some clever thinking here,” says Harry Bolton, senior director and planning lead at CBRE Manchester. According to Colliers’ Aitken the real issue here is not property or planning, but the investment strategy and funding model of the water companies. Developers are caught in the crossfire with environmentalists.

Day Zero

Maybe a much bigger planning reset is required? Centre for Cities is among those promoting the idea of a zoning system, as used in much of the rest of the world. There is serious interest from politicians, particularly Northern Labour ones such as Stretford and Urmston MP (and former Trafford Council Leader) Andrew Western.

PDR with knobs on

It works like permitted development rights: each zone allows you automatic permission if you tick all the right boxes. The government writes the rules for what a zone allows, and councils prepare a map of which zones go where. After that, planning is simply about fitting the right building into the right zone. Simple, predictable, uncontroversial – at least, that’s the idea.

Coherent thinking

The big win is that you have genuine spatial planning, which means housing and jobs can be fitted into transport infrastructure, health, the lot. Anthony Breach, senior analyst at Centre for Cities, laughs genially at the idea that this is a return to 1960s central economic planning, but doesn’t exactly say it isn’t.

“Local plans today… don’t really think about the relationship of development with infrastructure and transport. But you could merge zoning in with local transport plans,” he says. “Zoning is more like how the rest of the world does planning…planning [in England] is a huge barrier to deliver whatever politicians want to do – from NHS reform, to carbon emissions, to disparities in income… and there’s now greater intellectual grasp of the need for reform.”

Not so keen

Politicians and policy wonks may like this idea, but the property business not so much. CBRE’s Bolton says the idea is “treating the symptom, not the cause, which is that planning has been chronically underfunded and just waving a wand or simplifying won’t help.” He also suspects zoning is solving a problem that doesn’t exist: compliant schemes being stopped. “A beige scheme, which is absolutely compliant with the rules, is going to be fine under zoning– but they tend to sail through the planning system as it is at the moment anyway.”

Hard cases

Suppose you want to build a storey higher than the zone allows, or go a few hundred yards outside a zone boundary, how does a zoning system cope with that? “Developers will always test the feasibility of what’s on offer, and it’s right that they should,” Bolton says. He suggests you could deal with this by having tightly written rules, with few exceptions, but thinks that won’t erase the tension. According to Breach if developers push the envelope in a zoning system then the local council would likely have discretion, as they do today – so we’re back to square one.

Never stop fighting

And then there’s the courts. If angry residents can’t win their case in front of the local planning committee, they won’t just roll over. They will fight it in the courts, a tendency that has increased as the English planning system has become more systematic and rules-based. “It’s a fact we’ve seen a huge amount more litigation over the last few decades,” says Bolton. Once again, we’re back to the uncertainty and time-consuming processes of today’s system.

All hail the new document

The most significant imminent change may have gone unnoticed, and is in the Levelling Up Bill already: newly minted National Development Management Policies will be important. These will be practical what-to-do versions of the high ideas found in the National Planning Policy Framework, and in effect instructions to local councils about exactly what gets built. NDMPs are to be read alongside (and count ahead of) local plans. The idea represents a potentially massive centralisation of planning policy, not entirely unlike zoning. “NDMPs will simplify planning considerably, they could be quite beneficial and unlock development effectively,” Breach says.

Get your act together

But what everyone wants is for the politicians to sort themselves out on planning. A cross-party consensus would be nice. Says Kajima’s Pix: “You can’t ask politicians to take the politics out of development, but we do need longer-term approaches that consider legacy as well as instant electoral returns. Development cycles and political cycles do not run concurrently and therefore on long-term projects, just when some momentum is being achieved a change in personnel or policy can immediately scupper this, which can add years onto when communities can expect to receive the desired benefits.”

The post The Subplot | Nutrients and New Towns appeared first on Place North West.

Part of the Ipsen Group, the global manufacturer wants to expand its existing Wrexham base where it develops products that provide unique therapeutic indications for severe diseases.

Designed by Lovelock Mitchell Architects, the scheme would deliver a three-storey manufacturing facility featuring open-plan offices, a large plant room, and air-handling units.

Ipsen owns the vacant site, which was previously occupied by a large warehouse and despatch building before it was demolished in 2019.

Proposals also include the provision of 24 car parking spaces dedicated to the new building, in addition to the 264 existing spaces used by Ipsen staff across the whole estate.

Ipsen has been based at the Wrexham site since 1995 and currently employs more than 400 people there, making it the city’s third biggest employer.

If these plans are approved, the new warehouse will accommodate an additional 24 new staff.

The company occupies 53 locations across the world, with another two UK bases in Oxford and Slough.

Ipsen has been based on the site since 1995. Credit: via planning documents

The project team includes Axis Transport Services, Land Studio, Cambrian Ecology, and Envirocheck.

To learn more about the plans, search for application number P/2023/0482 on Wrexham Council’s planning portal.

The post Global biopharmaceutical manufacturer eyes Wrexham base expansion appeared first on Place North West.

FIREM’s Peblig Industrial Estate straddles the River Seiont near Caernarfon’s town centre. The 13-acre site is filled with an assortment of “poor quality” warehouses that are not fit for purpose or able to be refurbished in an economical fashion, according to a planning statement by Plan Red.

FIREM’s solution is to demolish those units and replace them with five blocks of light industrial, manufacturing, and logistics space. These DMWR Architects-designed blocks would have a total of 41 units varying in size from 968 sq ft to 10,344 sq ft. They would all add up to 126,200 sq ft of employment floor space.

Not all of the £10m project will be new-build, however. FIREM’s project also includes 68,250 sq ft of refurbished industrial space for those buildings that can be modernised.

If FIREM can secure planning permission from Gwynedd County Council, the developer would also build a new internal circulation road and an improved bridge over the River Seiont to link one edge of the estate with the other.

Given the project’s proximity to the river, FIREM’s proposals include a flood compensation pond and a flood meadow to help keep the water at bay.

Access to Peblig is from Llanbeblig Road. Those driving to work on the revamped site would have access to 147 car parking spaces, including 15 that are designated for those with disabilities. There would also be 40 cycle spaces.

FIREM estimates that the Peblig overhaul would create 150 jobs in the long term.

The developer also stated that work on the project would complete 18 months after starting.

“Our redevelopment of Peblig Industrial Estate is a continuation of our ambition to create modern and much-improved industrial space that befits growing and successful businesses in North Wales,” said Tim Knowles, founder and managing director of FIREM.

The team for the Peblig project includes Wardell Armstrong, Prime Transport, United Environmental Services, and LDE.

You can learn more about the scheme by searching C22/0696/14/LL on Gwynedd County Council’s planning portal.

The post FIREM devises £10m Peblig revamp appeared first on Place North West.

J D Wetherspoon will transform the currently undeveloped upper floor space of the existing pub to deliver a 33-bedroom hotel.

K D Paine & Associates designed the scheme, which will also see the redevelopment of the former Tiggs store next door to create a 2,600 sq ft beer garden and roof terrace. Wetherspoons acquired the shop in 2016 with the intention to expand.

There will be “no major alterations to the existing building and the existing elevations will be repaired as necessary and decorated with the same scheme as the existing pub”, according to a design and access statement.

Named after its location near The Cob, the Pen Cob pub sits within the former Bon Marche building opposite the train station and was opened in 2013.

This is not the first time that the national pub chain has tried to transform the tavern.  An earlier application was refused in 2018 due to unresolved concerns relating to flood risk and the impact of the development on the area.

Wetherspoon returned to the planning department in 2019 with the current application, which was once again delayed for the same reasons.

Cadnant Planning was recruited in 2022 to resolve matters, with amended plans featuring an improved appearance of the site from the Maes.

The project team also includes DBR Associates, Spectrum, and ADC Infrastructure.

To learn more about the plans, search for application number C19/0631/45/LL on Gwynedd Council’s planning portal.

The project marks the chain’s fourth hotel venture in Wales, including one in Ruthin in North Wales.

The post Hotel, terrace set for Gwynedd Wetherspoons appeared first on Place North West.

THIS WEEK

• The doubtful future of the 400-store Wilko discount chain poses a challenge to Northern high streets. But there is hope
• Elevator pitch: your weekly rundown of who and what is going up, and who is heading the other way

WILKO LESSONS

A bad time for high streets just got worse

Wilko’s woes place a question mark over 2.5m sq ft of Northern retail floorspace. With retail still on its knees, and a cost-of-living crisis beginning to bite, does anyone want it?

Four bidders (probably) met yesterday’s deadline to acquire Wilko and its 400 UK stores (around 100 of them in the North). B&M, Poundland, Home Bargains, and The Range were reported to be in the frame. It’s hard to believe – given the location of their own stores – that any potential owner will want to keep all Wilko stores open. Maybe all of them will close.

Numbers, please

Some facts. The average Wilko store size is 25,000 sq ft, and about four-fifths is on the high street or in shopping centres and precincts. About one-fifth of the Northern portfolio is in retail parks, according to CoStar data. The impression is that most leases are relatively short-dated: five years or 10 years with a break at five, and a few at 15.

The good stuff

The focus of interest will be out-of-town. “The floorspace within retail parks is likely to attract the strongest interest from other retailers. However, the remainder of shops are on high streets and in shopping centres, where footfall has tended to be lower, and units previously occupied by the likes of Debenhams or Arcadia brands have taken longer to re-let,” Giles Tebbitts, CoStar Group’s director of market analytics in Manchester, tells Subplot.

Woolworths revisited

As for the 2m sq ft of Northern high street floorspace, there are two recent precedents for large-scale retail collapse. Debenhams folded in 2021. Since then, many of its stores – well located, big, interesting – have been repurposed at pace. Manchester’s Art Deco block is the star example of a long list which includes leisure, build-to-rent housing, and much else. Woolworths, which fell down a well in 2008, saw 807 stores repurposed or re-let but a lot more slowly. “This may be more like Woolworths than Debenhams,” says Allsop’s head of commercial investment Richard Brooke.

The difficult cases

A fairish chunk of that floorspace won’t lend itself to repurposing. “Every asset is different, of course, and where Wilko had a multi-floor building it could lend itself to residential or student housing. But the big floorplates in shopping centres will be harder. That said, Wilko is often well located in town centres or roadside, so there will be interest,” says Brooke.

Show time

So the Northern towns anchored by Wilko stores needn’t give up hope. A vision of the future is already visible in Rotherham, where the 20,000 sq ft store shut in 2022. Rotherham Council bought it (for a song) ahead of demolition. The replacement, a new theatre, sounds nice. Blackpool will be hoping for a similar performance. Wilko signed a 15-year lease on a 22,000 sq ft unit at the council’s Houndshill Shopping Centre (bought in 2019 for a lot more than a song – about £48m). The Wilko deal was part of a rethink for Houndshill.

We are watching

“Whilst the extent of [Wilko’s] insolvency procedure remains unclear, the successful delivery of the Phase 2 project at the Houndshill remains a top priority for the council, and we are in discussions with the tenant to ratify their long-term position within the town centre. We will then reassess our options as necessary,” said a council spokesperson when approached by Place North West earlier this month.

Curtains

Not many tears will be shed for the real losers: a handful of already weakened Northern landlords. If they already had high loan-to-value ratios, and were relying on Wilko rental (and covenant strength) to shore up their position with lenders, then the next few weeks could be the final straw. Loans will sink underwater, covenants will be breached. Today’s habit of virtually real-time portfolio valuations – quarterly, or more frequent – leaves stretched landlords with no way to smudge their balance sheet bothers. Lenders will notice. For some town centre landlords, Wilko’s woes will mean curtains.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Going up, or going down? This week’s movers

Subplot’s twin elevators are both rising smoothly to the good-view floors. Flex floorspace can make money after all, says a Leeds operator, while Liverpool’s Spine dodges a bullet.

Low-impact flex floorspace

Subplot reported last week that WeWork and IWG were struggling to make money from serviced flex workspace. Leeds has turned out to be a laboratory for an alternative approach whose operator insists it isn’t a struggle at all. Spacemade, which partners landlords to create their own branded offering, say it’s going like a dream. Co-founder Jonny Rosenblatt has been in touch to say occupancy at Park House, Leeds, fluctuates between 98%-100% and has done during the two years since opening. He wants to expand in Leeds.

“Until a year or so ago, there was an undersupply of well-managed flex space and this is a definite gap as we’re seeing a strong market of – particularly – young creative businesses coming to Leeds, possibly because the rents are that bit cheaper than London or some of the more established Northern cities like Manchester,” Rosenblatt says.

• Learn more about the state of the office market at Place North West’s Offices + Workspace conference on 11 October. Book tickets.

Spine dodges bullet

The Spine, a 155,000 sq ft of Liverpool City Council-backed office in Paddington Village, has had to take a certain amount of incoming fire. The latest was a Sunday drive-by on the state of the site showcasing graffiti, litter, untidy flower beds. The bigger problem has been 70,000 sq ft of stubbornly vacant floorspace.

That could be about to change. Subplot hears that a 34,000 sq ft letting is in prospect (and it’s not wealth manager Rathbones, in case you wondered). Sources nod and wink towards Cashplus Bank, which expanded into a full floor in May, but public sector/NHS occupiers are also fancied.

More deals will follow. One floor is being divided to provide smaller units. Another three floors – so 33,000 sq ft, give or take – is being fitted out to Cat A or Cat B standard, with rents starting at a shade under £24/sq ft.

The council continues to take a kicking for its approach to property investment and regeneration – see below-the-line comments on the latest effort to ginger up the narrative. But in 2016-2018, when the Spine idea was first brewing, everyone thought it was just the bold forward-thinking move Liverpool needed. Of course, if it had been built on Old Hall Street it would have been fully let long ago, but that’s another story. It’s hardly The Spine’s fault that the city centre new-build market is a mix of daydream and nightmare.

Cllr Nick Small, Liverpool’s cabinet member for growth and economy, confirms to Subplot: “The recent flurry of stories highlighting problems at The Spine are well wide of the mark. The RCP is thriving, as is its award-winning event space. All of the serviced space managed by Sciontec is full – with a number of customers planning to expand -– and of the remaining floors, three are in legals and three are being fitted out to meet current market trends.”

The post The Subplot | Wilko lessons, Liverpool’s Spine, flex makes money appeared first on Place North West.

Conwy County Council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve its own proposals to knock down part of the school, add around 6,400 sq ft of additional space, and bring the rest of the complex up to standard. 

A report to the committee described the school as a “health risk” due to the presence of mould, damp, and lack of heating in some classrooms. 

In addition, the existing hall is not big enough to accommodate the school’s 289 pupils. 

The redevelopment project, which will be delivered across four phases, would see modular extensions to the north-west and south-east of the site bulldozed and replaced with a new hall and kitchen and new teaching facilities respectively. 

The remaining complex, built in 1939 would be upgraded and modernised. 

Improvements to the building’s energy efficiency also form part of the project. 204 solar panels are to be installed on the roof, the school’s roof will be thermally upgraded, and all of the windows will be replaced with double glazing. 

To learn more about the project, search for application reference 0/50860 on Conwy County Council’s planning portal. 

Lawray Architects advised the council on the scheme. 

The post Conwy approves upgrade of ‘health risk’ school  appeared first on Place North West.

THIS WEEK

• Stuck on amber: Rail and road projects, including the long-awaited A66 dualling between Penrith and Scotch Corner, are at risk of failure
• Elevator pitch: your weekly rundown of who and what is going up, and who is heading the other way

STUCK ON AMBER

Big transport projects are waiting at the lights

The infrastructure investments that could open up the North’s economy and property markets are going nowhere fast.

Monday marked a big moment for Northern transport. Seven years after government said it truly meant to dual the A66 between the M6 at Penrith, and the A1M at Scotch Corner, an inspector submitted the relevant paperwork to the secretary of state. He has until 7 November to make up his mind. The road hasn’t been touched since the 1970s, and is one of the busiest freight routes in the land. In short, it matters.

Green is good

Will it be the green light in November? Green didn’t feature heavily in the recent analysis of the £1.4bn project’s prospects filed by the Infrastructure & Projects Authority. The IPA has been tracking progress since 2020/2021, at which point civil servants reckoned the road expansion was on track. By 2021/2022 things were sliding and today it is rated as “amber.” This means “successful delivery appears feasible but significant issues already exist, requiring management attention. These appear resolvable at this stage and, if addressed promptly, should not present a cost/schedule overrun.”

Funny name

The A66 dualling project is a trial run for an initiative called Project Speed – clue in the name – which is meant to halve the time big road schemes take to complete. So far it’s potholes not roadblocks slowing things down, such as the Planning Inspectorate refusing to rubber stamp a route realignment around Warcop, on the Cumbria side (the inspectorate will announce a final decision on 29 August), and Costain pulling out of a four-way contractor arrangement for the scheme with Balfour Beatty, Keltbray, and Kier.

And the floorspace?

Uncertainty hasn’t helped the spin-off commercial property prospects that the improved A66 ought to deliver. Scotch Corner would make a sensible place for big sheds – the 2012-2028 Richmondshire Plan said so – but there’s nothing much to see by way of progress since. The plan – written years ago – woefully noted: “Although well located for both the A1 and A66, only a small amount of employment development has taken place at Scotch Corner. Planning permission was first granted for a major seven-hectare employment development next to Scotch Corner 20 years ago and remains a planning commitment, but development has not yet started.” That said, a designer village is in progress (opening next year) as is a 107,000 sq ft shed providing 37 units. So, something, but not a major logistics hub.

Turning orange

The A66 upgrade is one of an embarrassingly large number of major Northern infrastructure schemes rated as amber or red by the IPA. Ready? The East Coast Digital Programme, which will improve rail signalling from Grantham South, has had three consecutive years in the amber category. The East Coast Main Line Enhancement Programme, an effort to increase capacity and reduce journey times, scored a green in 2018/2019 and has been amber ever since.

Or red

And more: electrification of the Midland Mainline from Wigston to Sheffield
and Nottingham (MML3) is also in its second year of amber while HS2 phase 2a (Birmingham to Crewe) has moved smoothly from green to bright red. Red means “successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable. There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.”

Too much amber

And more: Phase 2b (Crewe to Manchester) is doing slightly better, and is stuck on amber, along with Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Transpennine Route Upgrade, both on amber for the last three years. The last is the low-fat version of a high-speed rail line including electrification, new track, digital signals, and increased opportunity for freight between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds, and York.

­ELEVATOR PITCH

Going up, or going down? This week’s movers

Flexible workspace remains a loss-maker; science property is in the midst of a massive chemical reaction. Stand by for one, or the other, to vanish in a puff of smoke. Doors closing, going down!

Laboratories

The scramble to capture Manchester’s science, tech, and life science occupiers just got serious. Kadans Science Partner, the Dutch sci-tech floorspace giant, has submitted a detailed planning application for a life science building on the former Citroen dealership in Upper Brook Street, part of Manchester’s university district. Kadans Science Partner and McLaren are gunning for 215,000 sq ft of laboratories and 740 student beds in a 23-storey block.

Next door, Property Alliance and Moda are looking at 470,000 sq ft of life science accommodation and 1,100 student beds. Up the road at the former UMIST campus, Bruntwood SciTech and the University of Manchester are getting their planning ducks in a row ahead of a 4m sq ft development.

Demand for labs is said to be good, and growing, and nobody is quaking at the prospect of so much floorspace in what is still an experiment in a novel property sector. But as with any chemical experiment, getting the mix right will be everything.

WeWork woes

Is anybody making any money from providing flexible serviced workspace? Despite the good vibes, and a post-pandemic boost, big names are still taking a hit. This week US-based giant WeWork declared “substantial doubt exists about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” This followed a 4% increase in revenue but a stonking increase in quarterly losses, up from £234m to £311m. Membership also dropped back. The firm has four offices in Manchester (and 50 in London) and says it needs to see cheaper rental deals.

It was the same story over at IWG. Revenues at the Regus and Spaces operator were up 16% to £1.7bn, but profit was unchanged (there wasn’t any, pre-tax) because costs went up. It has plenty of debt, the cost of which turned an H1 operating profit of £90m into a pre-tax loss of £70m.

Analysts reckon IWG will move into profit before too long, but optimism in the flexible workspace world seems to come a lot easier than a reliable surplus of income over costs.

The post The Subplot | Infrastructure woes, flexspace, laboratories appeared first on Place North West.

The Welsh government is currently advertising for the first nine positions at Ynni Cymru, with the idea that it will grow to 12 full-time staff shortly thereafter.

Ynni Cymru will be publicly owned and assist in giving local renewable energy projects a boost. Already £750,000 has been given out in its name to 11 different projects.

These include Ynni Ogwen’s proposal to install solar panels on community and business buildings in Dyffryn Ogwen and Ynni Twrog’s push to establish heat networks in Gwynedd.

Also on Ynni Cymru’s list of North West projects: Ynni Newydd Cyfyngedig’s solar farm at Bretton Hall in Flintshire – set to be one of the largest community-owned solar farms in the country.

Welsh climate change minister Julie James described the need for a company like Ynni Cymru.

“The current market-based approach to the energy system is not delivering decarbonisation at the scale or pace necessary for the climate emergency and has not been retaining sufficient benefit in Wales,” she said.

“Local use of locally generated energy is an effective way to support net-zero and keep the benefit in our communities,” she continued.

“Ynni Cymru will complement the great work already being undertaken by the Welsh Government Energy Service and Community Energy Wales, especially around scaling up and increasing the impact of renewable energy assets across Wales.
Ynni Cymru was born out of the Welsh government’s co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru.

Plaid Cymru designated member Siân Gwenllian described the energy company as “an ambitious project”.

“How we produce and consume energy is an essential part of achieving net zero and establishing Ynni Cymru is a key development in our ambitions,” she said.

“We also know that whoever owns energy assets is hugely important,” she continued.

“Ynni Cymru’s investment in expanding community-owned renewable energy generation will help decarbonise our energy supply with sustainable green energy and directly benefit people who live in those communities.”

Ynni Cymru’s new home, M-SParc, has positioned itself as a leader in innovations surrounding sustainability. The science park, run by Bangor University, received £2.5m for an expansion earlier this summer. 

The post Wales launches publicly-owned renewable energy company appeared first on Place North West.

To that end, we have launched a competition where we will let the public decide what office has the best view in the region.

The winning office will get two tickets to our Offices + Workspace conference on 11 October, a news story announcing its win, and, of course, bragging rights.

The very imaginatively named Best North West Office View competition launches today with a call for submissions.

How do you submit your office for the competition? Choose from one of these three options:

1. Email your office view photo to news@placenorthwest.co.uk, with the subject line Best Office Views. Be sure to include where your office is located.
2. Post your office view photo on LinkedIn and tag Place North West in the post. Use the hashtag #BestPlaceView.
3. Post your office view photo on Instagram and tag @PlaceNorthWest in the post. Use the hashtag #BestPlaceView.

The deadline for entries is Friday 18 August, so you have two weeks to take the best possible photo from your office.

Want a taste of who you’re up against? There are two offices already in the running: Studio RBA, which boasts an always glorious Royal Albert Dock view, and AEW, which has a balcony that provides a stunning look out onto the Manchester skyline.

Voting will be done by Place readers. The polls open on 21 August and shut down at noon on 25 August. The winner shall be crowned the following week.

May the best view win.

The post COMPETITION | Does your office have the best view? appeared first on Place North West.

THIS WEEK

• Tech trauma: is the tide coming back in for the tech sector? There are signs it might be
• Elevator pitch: your weekly rundown of who and what is going up, and who is heading the other way

TECHIES HEART MORE DESKS

Is the tech sector finished with sacking people?

… because if the meltdown is over, it probably means they will be back in the office market. A massive Manchester requirement seems to prove it.

Apple, Alphabet, Palantir, Meta, X, the firm that runs Slack – tech giants have been laying off staff, thousands of them. Smaller firms (OneWeb, Zepz, Deliveroo, Luno) have also let plenty of people go. This follows a giddy hiring spree – some of it to meet pandemic market needs – which left them vulnerable as the economy reshaped. The meltdown took a major player out of UK property markets. Some big names – Facebook, Google, Slack – off-loaded large chunks of floorspace, while others – Amazon, Microsoft – put property plans on hold.

Big problem?

Let’s not get this out of proportion. According to the most-used list of tech job layoffs, so far this year about 11,500 have gone in the UK, all but about 500 in London, the rest in Birmingham, Bristol, and Edinburgh. Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool (home to a thriving gaming sector) aren’t on the list at all – zilch, nada – meaning either the list isn’t comprehensive, or the three cities’ tech sectors are hanging on to staff. So far Google is still in Peter House in Manchester and Amazon is expanding into its base at NOMA. So the global giant vibe is good.

Tide turns

Among the smaller tech businesses, the surge in lay-offs over the winter seems to be easing: recruitment consultancy Robert Walters says the public sector, banking, and finance are recruiting tech again, with overall tech vacancies up 10% in May and 26% in June. These are London figures but it’s the same in Northern cities. “I’d say we’re up 25% on the start of the year,” says Leif Radford at Manchester specialist recruiter The Candidate. “Financial services and agencies are big growth areas – agencies because some still haven’t the confidence to recruit full-time, so buy in skills from agencies.”

What this means for property

In short, the tide is turning, with banking and finance getting wet first. “It was a quiet winter for the tech sector, and I think it’s going to stay like that for the next six months,” CBRE’s senior director and Northern tech property specialist, Joe Rigby, tells Subplot. “But the office market generally has been propped up by the professional, banking, and finance sector and that’s true for tech, too. Banks are really important to tech demand because they are chasing talent in the city, trying to hoover it up. Towards the end of 2023, and into 2024, tech employers will take a sterner view on working from home, adjust to redundancies, and be back out looking. So, next six to 12 months, they will be back in the property market.”

For example

Keep your eyes on Bank of New York Mellon, which has a massive tech operation in Manchester and a requirement for 200,000 sq ft (up from 150,000 sq ft). Lease events in 2023 and 2026 mean things are brewing for the US giant which does a lot of its tech in the North, and is said to plan an awful lot more. Bruntwood SciTech’s 267,000 sq ft No3 Circle Square completes in 2025, which is excellent timing. Circle Square is already home to Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Roku, Uber’s Autocab, Accenture, Northcoders, and Xero.

Also for example

Total Manchester tech-linked requirements are around 500,000 sq ft and maybe half as much again in Leeds and Liverpool. According to Robert Walters’ data, shared exclusively with Subplot: 18% of all new tech roles advertised come from companies in the North, up from 13% in 2022. So it’s not an over-heated imagination, there’s really something going on.

The Candidate’s Leif Radford points out that with tech employers no longer as willing (or able) to compete on wages, which are often eye-watering anyway, the focus of the battle for talent has moved decisively to terms (flexible working) and the quality of the workplace. Landlords and property developers, take note ahead of 2024.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Going up, or going down? This week’s movers

Leeds’ office market presses penthouse and rockets up; plans to rethink Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens plunge down to the loading bay. Doors closing!

Piccadilly Gardens

There must be massive sighs of relief at West8, Planit-IE, and Studio Egret West. Their good fortune is to lose out in a competition to redesign Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens. Poor old LDA Design, the current preferred contractor, won.

Pity the winner, because the £25m redesign, due to reach planners next year, is a nightmare waiting to happen. A perfectly nice rose garden was removed to make way for de-humanising concrete between 2001 and 2003, and since then it’s been all downhill. The rose garden went because of anti-social behaviour, allegedly, and various further rethinks have fallen foul of variations on the same complaint. Recent iterations left the gardens feeling less like an oasis of calm, and more like the ideal location for public executions.

The connecting thread is that this is a high-footfall, high-inclusivity environment and yet nobody wants to pay the daily cost of patrolling and keeping it nice. Hence each time it’s rethought the answer is a low-maintenance area that soon gets trashed. Until the bus station is moved, and someone agrees to pay for proper upkeep and security, all redesigns, however thoughtful, will go the same way.

Leeds offices

More evidence that Manchester’s pre-eminence as the Northern office market du jour is under threat. This time last month Birmingham’s first-half office take-up seemed to be growing at a time when Manchester was stagnating (or sliding backwards) (Subplot, 13 July). Now Leeds joins the party.

The city racked up 146,000 sq ft of city centre deals in Q2, taking the H1 total to 413,000 sq ft. This was up 53% year-on-year. A reminder that central Manchester scored 390,000 sq ft in H1, and is generally a substantially larger market. Another straw in the wind.

The post The Subplot | Tech traumas, Leeds offices, lucky losers appeared first on Place North West.

M-SParc 2.0 is the extension of the university’s M-SParc scheme, which was built by Willmott Dixon in 2018 and comprises 31,200 sq ft of office space and 23 laboratories. M-SParc sits off Junction 7 of the A55 in Gaerwen. The science park has a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Welsh government announced its support for the Anglesey science park earlier this month and will provide £2.5m to support the development of M-SParc 2.0.

Plans for an M-SParc sequel were announced in June. Like its predecessor, the M-SParc 2.0 will host a mix of office and lab space. The scheme is still in its development phase, so not many details have been released.

Welsh economy minister Vaughan Gething said that the Welsh government was “pleased” to financially support M-SParc 2.0.

“With this funding, M-SParc can expand further, create careers, and provide support to the companies based there,” Gething said.

Bangor University pro-vice-chancellor for research Paul Spencer also spoke about the need for the expansion.

“The university’s global reputation for research and innovation provides an opportunity to attract low-carbon businesses to our Science Park – M-SParc,” he said.

“Crucially, the development of the site will stimulate demand, fulfilling the long-term goal of cultivating a thriving business and research community that will benefit the entire region,” he continued.

“The science park’s growth plans are a positive step in providing a platform to further showcase the expertise and talents in the area whilst demonstrating a strong commitment to the economy of North Wales.”

Learn more about the labs and life sciences property scene in the North West and North Wales. Book your Labs of the Future: Life Sciences Property Update ticket.

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Plans mark the second phase of Redsun Projects’ Vista development in Hawarden. Phase one reached practical completion last month with the creation of four industrial units totalling 65,000 sq ft.

Designed by architect Fletcher Rae, phase two will deliver a total of 60,000 sq ft of warehouse space. Individual units will measure 30,000 sq ft, 10,200 sq ft, and 19,800 sq ft.

The ground floor of each unit will feature around 10% of office space.

Visitors will also be provided with a total of 99 car parking spaces, including 10 electric vehicle and 11 disabled bays, across the three units.

The project was approved in line with officer recommendations.

Cadnant Planning is the planning consultant for the scheme. Also on the project team is landscape architect TPM Landscape, transport consultant Mode Transport Planning, and engineering consultant Crookes Walker Consulting.

To find out more about the plans, search for application number FUL/000345/23 on Flintshire County Council’s planning portal.

The post Redsun secures consent for 60,000 sq ft industrial appeared first on Place North West.

Meanwhile, the big box occupation market slowed for the first time in four years, with only 1.5m sq ft taken up – down 64% from the year before.

Here’s a closer look at each of the industrial markets. You can download the report for yourself on B8RE’s website.

Investment

While £979m of investments is a grand figure, B8RE warned that it was skewed by a few big deals – namely Blackstone’s £480m acquisition of Harbert Management Corporation’s portfolio at Trafford Park and Heywood Distribution Park.

So while there was £979m reported for the first half of 2023, it was worth noting that was only spread across 29 deals. For comparison, the same period in 2022 had £505m of transactions across 39 deals.

When looking at the B8RE data, it is clear that bigger ticket items were in demand with multi-let estates accounting for half of the total industrial sales value for the period. Smaller warehouses represented 32% of that value figure.

“Investors’ demand for industrial property has remained robust compared to other property sectors but the supply of properties remains restricted,” said John Burrows, investment surveyor at B8RE.

“Many owners are unwilling to sell in the current market and there remains a strong impasse between vendors’ and buyers’ price expectations,” he continued.

“Meanwhile purchasers are being more selective as stubborn inflation and uncertainty about when interest rates will peak has made them more cautious,” Burrows said.

“It is also harder for them to deploy capital as higher finance costs make it ever more difficult to achieve the desired returns at current prices.”

Occupation

B8RE reported 1.5m sq ft taken up in the big box sector over the course of nine transactions. This is down 64% from the same period last year and is the first slowdown in four years, according to B8RE.

The agency argued that this number was due to change, with several largescale deals in the works.

A similar report from Savills was more positive. Savills’ Big Shed Briefing put the North West take-up of industrial and logistics space at 2.15m sq ft.

B8RE noted that there were only three new-build, big box, speculative units immediately available in the North West, equating to 703,000 sq ft. This pressure on the market is set to get some relief soon, as there is another 1.9m sq ft under construction.

Because of these low supply levels, B8RE noted that rents can be higher than before. It is no surprise then that Scientific Gaming’s lease of 91,000 sq ft at Omega in Warrington has a headline record rent of £9.5/sq ft – the headline rent of the year before was £8/sq ft.

Other notable leases included Jet2 taking 152,000 sq ft at MA6NITUDE in Middlewich and TK Maxx’s leasing of 456,700 sq ft at PLP Crewe.

While the big box market suffered, the mid-box and multi-let industrial property markets remained strong, B8RE said.

“Economic uncertainty, influenced by inflation and rising interest rates, has undoubtedly resulted in caution on the part of occupiers,” said Will Kenyon, B8RE industrial agency member.

“However, with almost 1.27m sq ft of space in solicitors’ hands and several unsatisfied high-profile requirements we anticipate stronger take-up levels in the second half. Low supply levels are helping to maintain rental growth.”

Kenyon also noted the growing importance of ESG credentials in the leasing market.

“Operational efficiencies and ESG credentials continue to be important to occupiers and many are looking to move to more modern premises,” Kenyon said. “An increasing number of investors are also announcing they are unable to acquire assets that do not meet their ESG requirements.”

About ESG

Kenyon’s observation builds upon a recent Knight Frank report which clocked that more than half of the North West’s warehouse space could become ‘unlettable’ by 2030 because of its inability to achieve a minimum EPC rating of B.

This is not just a North West issue. The national government is enforcing a requirement for all industrial space to be EPC C by 2027, and then EPC B by 2030. Nationwide, Knight Frank notes that the EPC B requirement would eliminate 404m sq ft of industrial space from the letting pool.

Properties that can offer ESG credentials stand to benefit, with industrial rents predicted to grow by 3.1% a year over the next five years for these units, according to Knight Frank.

“Landlords who take action now to retrofit are already reaping the rewards,” said Knight Frank senior surveyor Bradley Norton. “Occupiers are prioritising more energy-efficient premises as they look to deliver on their own ESG credentials and with a slow-down of new stock, second-hand space has to be improved.”

Charles Binks, head of logistics and industrial at Knight Frank, elaborated: “While newly constructed warehouses generally meet top sustainability standards, 82% of the UK’s existing stock built before the year 2000, do not meet minimum EPC requirements.

“It is obvious that significant capital expenditure is required to retrofit these warehouses and mitigate obsolescence risk, however just 6% have undergone upgrades in the past five years,” Binks continued.

“The prospects for rental growth should offer incentive. However, investors must accelerate the rate at which older facilities are upgraded or they will become unlettable.”

The post Nearly £1bn North West industrial investments reported this year appeared first on Place North West.

Gwynedd County Council voted to approve the 41 homes at its planning committee meeting on Monday.

The fully affordable resi scheme will be built on three acres of agricultural land by Trem Y Moelwyn. Despite the site’s current use as a livestock pasture, it was allocated for housing in the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan.

Of the 41 homes, most will be houses. This includes one two-bed bungalow and one four-bed bungalow with wheelchair access. A six-bedroom supported living house is also included in the plans.

The other house mixture comprises 20 with two bedrooms, nine with three bedrooms, and one with four bedrooms.

The remaining eight homes are all one-bedroom apartments.

Tenures will be a mix of social and intermediate rent, part-ownership, and affordable intermediate housing for sale.

Each home would have at least one off-street parking space, with the six-bedroom house having four spaces.

Grŵp Cynefin is set to manage 19 of the homes, while Clwyd-Alyn will be charged with 22.

Ainsley Gommon Architects designed the homes, which will be built by Bala-based Williams Homes. The homes themselves will have locally built timber frames and be constructed using MMC.

In addition to the residential side of the project, the scheme includes a new access road off the Trem y Moelwyn Estate and a pedestrian access point from the nearby A487.

Owen Devenport is the planner for the project, which also has Land Studio, SCP, Enfys Ecology, Brython Archeology, and Datrys as members of its project team.

You can learn more about the housing scheme by searching C23/0201/08/LL on Gwynedd County Council’s planning portal.

The post Gwynedd clears path for 41 affordable homes appeared first on Place North West.

Built by McLaren Construction, the project comprises two warehouses within the industrial estate’s 105-acre Zone 2, which had 850,000 sq ft of logistics space before these two warehouses completed. Zone 2 sits off the A55, providing tenants easy access to the M56 and M53.

McLaren began work on the warehouses last May. Joel Casstles, McLaren project manager, said: “Our team specialises in the construction of cutting-edge industrial facilities, and we’re delighted to reach PC here at Deeside. The whole project team has contributed in a collaborative effort and it will be great to see these buildings let well, as they deserve to.”

The larger of the two new warehouses is Deeside 63, which offers tenants 63,200 sq ft of warehouse space on more than 3.5 acres.

The smaller is Deeside 40, which sits on a two acre plot and boasts 39,800 sq ft of industrial space.

Both units have been built to BREEAM Very Good targets and have an EPC rating of A+. Electric vehicle charging points are provided on the site, which also has a solar panel array. This power source is one of the factors helping the warehouses achieve net zero carbon performance in operation.

Fletcher Rae Architects designed the buildings, while Workman was the project manager.

Legat Owen and B8 Real Estate are the joint agents for Deeside 63 and Deeside 40. The warehouses’ quoting rent is £7.95/sq ft.

Mark Diaper, director at Legat Owen, was confident tenants would be interested in the properties.

“We have advised on Zone 2, Deeside Industrial Park for the past three decades and have subsequently accrued an intrinsic knowledge of the business economy here, having secured many of the lettings,” Diaper said.

“These buildings respond to the increasing demand from occupiers for better-performing buildings in sustainability terms, while continuing to offer the same locational advantages as neighbouring sites, along with a high specification.

“ESG has never been more important to occupiers, and Deeside 40 and Deeside 63 will certainly meet that need.”

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As an employee-owned company, the staff of AGA will enjoy tax-free annual bonuses based on the studio’s success and have a greater voice when it comes to the firm’s future.

AGA has 20 employees and has offices in Birkenhead and Hawarden. Formed in 1979 by the now-retired David Ainsley and Peter Gommon, AGA specialises in community, education, urban regeneration, conservation, and housing projects.

Past projects include the remodelling of Crown Buildings for Wrexham Council, restoration works at Birkenhead Priory Scheduled Monument, and the Birkenhead Park visitor centre.

AGA’s EOT board will include associate Tom McEvoy and associate director Arwyn Lloyd as employee representatives and director Paul Lester as the company representative.

While the EOT holds all of the company’s shares, the day-to-day business of the firm will continue to be run by directors Simon Venables, Alf Plant, Paul Lester, and Steve Geary. Mark French has stepped down from the board of directors, but continues to be a principal architect and senior manager at AGA.

French was one of the leaders in the EOT process, having been inspired after a presentation on employee ownership at a Royal Society of Architects in Wales webinar.

“It was a ‘lightbulb moment’, as employee ownership seemed to be perfectly aligned with our practice culture and values,” French recalled.

“I know a lot of companies say it, but we really do regard our colleagues at AGA as a family and want the best for each other, and EO encapsulates that ethos,” he continued.

“We hope the fact we are Employee Owned will also appeal to new staff and make us stand out to those seeking to further their career in architecture.”

AGA director Venables said: “We see the transfer to an EOT as a great opportunity for all our staff to share in the success and prosperity of the practice while participating more fully in the running of the company at every level.”

Associate McEvoy remarked: “It feels like a natural progression for us really. I joined AGA on my placement from university in 2005 and then got a job here when I qualified, so to now have a proper stake in the company is great.”

Fellow EOT board member Lloyd praised the company’s decision.

‘’The EOT will ensure the business will be run in the best interests of the employees and gives staff a clearer understanding of the long-term future of practice,” Lloyd said. “It will allow for greater employee engagement and reinforce the values-led office culture’’.

AGA received employee ownership transition support from Social Business Wales.

Employee ownership has become more prevalent in the North West over the past two years. Current EOTs include Planit-IE, Crookes Walker, Day Architectural, DB3, Futureserv, B8 Real Estate, Curtins, and Place North West.

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THIS WEEK

• Senior living: prosperous pensioners are attracting developers to build for them, but will everyone else get the senior living options they need?
• Elevator pitch: your weekly rundown of who and what is going up, and who is heading the other way

GREY POUNDS, BRIGHT PROSPECTS

The ultimate Boomer property proposition

There’s a new three-letter acronym for you to get used to: integrated retirement communities (IRC). We’ll see lots more of them in the North.

You better get used to IRCs. Ranging in size from modest to monster, integrated retirement communities provide senior living from supported homes right up to care beds, sometimes even dementia care. In the past few months plans have popped up for substantial IRC developments at the Dore Moor Garden Centre in Sheffield by Inspired Living; Bootham Park Hospital in York by Enterprise Retirement Living; and Boughton Heath in Chester by Retirement Villages Group.

Nimby trouble

But it’s not a smooth ride. There would have been one at Alderley Park, under Vita Group’s Symphony Park brand, if local councillors hadn’t decided it wasn’t to be permitted in their back yard, despite officials recommending approval. Many IRCs are described as “luxury” (the Alderley Park scheme, for instance) and plainly some neighbourhoods don’t welcome them. Today just 1% of the over-65s live in IRCs, amounting to 88,000 units, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Back in 2021, Subplot reported on the difficulties and opportunities here: things have moved on, but the scale of development hasn’t.

Money talks

Yet the weight of money means the IRC market is likely to keep growing because it’s a good bet for the big-money investors – funds, institutions, private equity, Americans, and Asians – now scouring the land for opportunities. A recent analysis for the British Property Federation suggested £6.5bn was ready and waiting in 2022/2023. Actually spending it – see the Alderley Park example – turns out to be harder than many expected.

Microscopic

It’s a new and tiny market. There are just over 600,000 senior housing units of any description in the UK (yes, isn’t it mad?), and all but a handful are dated or dating. Just 7,000 additional units are built each year, about 4,000 in IRCs, the rest various kinds of public sector projects. Bear in mind that there are more than 12m people aged over 65.

Business case

The appeal of IRCs is clear: nice regular income. For investors, the appeal is similar to BTR and student housing, and the pool of potential investors is widening just as it has for BTR and student housing: once dominated by patient capital, but now private equity wants a share of the action.

Not just for the rich

But will the wider senior living sector get moving? Or will IRC remain a niche, and a very tiny niche at that? And remember even the iciest business soul wants this to go mass market because that improves the market’s growth prospects and liquidity, more buyers, more sellers… whereas a microscopic niche suits no one. The British Property Federation report was authored by a team at Cushman & Wakefield, so Subplot asked the consultancy’s specialist researcher Millie Todd what we should expect in the North.

It’s coming

“What’s been delivered so far has tended to be higher end, for sale or rental. But a middle market is emerging with a couple of providers – Audley, Birch Group – aiming for mid-range. I expect this will work like the BTR market, with a start at the prime end because it’s easier to get the numbers to stack up, given high land prices and debt costs. But there is huge demand and I would expect more provision in the mid range as the market matures,” she says. JLL thinks there’s demand for 725,000 housing-with-care units by 2025. Compare this with the 7,000-a-year annual output and you begin to grasp the problem.

But it depends on politicians

Cushman & Wakefield says there are developers and operators interested in all levels – from super-prime to affordable – and all locations (though not every location is going to get every level). The difficulty is that local councils don’t seem very bothered – see Alderley Edge again. “Some have no senior housing allocation at all,” says Todd, of local authority planning strategies. “Without public policy intervention we won’t get products fit for everyone’s financial and locational needs,” she adds.

A market to watch, but until local and central government focus on the sector, it is likely to remain focused on upscale IRCs, and the kind of locations that can support them, and therefore marginal to most pensioners’ housing needs.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Going up, or going down? This week’s movers

A levelling-up policy idea is languishing in the basement: it doesn’t matter how many times you press that button, this one’s going nowhere. However, hotel development is racing towards the penthouse. Doors closing, going up!

Hotel development

Last week Subplot flagged data showing hotel room rates looking good. This week saw more real-life data – qualitative and quantitative – to suggest the sector still has room to grow.

Adrian Ellis, manager at the luxury Lowry Hotel Manchester, and chair of the city’s hoteliers’ association, tells Subplot the huge surge in new city hotel beds in 2022 (up 1,500 in a single year) hasn’t hurt room rates or occupancy.

“Events in the city are generating a lot of leisure traffic and the conference business is also back. Perhaps corporate activity is still a bit slow, but not as bad as we thought it would be. Hotel development is at a frenetic pace, but we’ll all survive,” he says.

The new specialist Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District (Manchester Abid), which is using a tourist levy of £1 a night to raise funds to inspire yet more visitor-generating events, has had a smooth landing since its launch in April, Ellis tells Subplot.

Deloitte says the 2023 and 2024 Manchester pipeline is 500 and 188 respectively, which is sober by comparison with 2022 but still perfectly respectable.

There’s real growth in Leeds, too. Deloitte suggests there are around 390 beds under construction in 2023 and the same due in 2024: in the context of a fairly sluggish local market, this is a frenzy, the best on record since 2006.

Jam tomorrow

Could be a false alarm, or a re-announcement of things we’ve already heard, but rumours are floating around that chancellor Jeremy Hunt will use his annual Mansion House speech to city financiers to announce movements on the long-trailed plan to change pension and insurance rules to allow these funds to spend more, and keep less on hand.

At first, the idea was to rejig the regulatory regime to provide a big slug of infrastructure money without having to put up taxes, and thereby promote levelling up. As Subplot has been reporting over the years, the Solvency II slash Big Bang 2.0 slash Boris’s Levelling Up Golden Bullet plan has so far come to nothing (1 June 2023, and follow the links back).

The project now seems to be reframed as an effort to allow funds to invest in riskier growth stock – start-ups and tech companies, basically – and rather less about levelling up. The snag is that pension funds are not really big on risk, for obvious reasons. The rule change wouldn’t force them to do anything anyway, and it’s not clear sensible start-ups struggle to get funding. Keep your eye on the news in the next few days for signs this one has vanished up its own policy backside.

The post The Subplot | Boomer property, hotels, policy failure appeared first on Place North West.

Land off Welsh Road

Application number: RES/000658/22

Bellway Homes is due to start on site as soon as possible to deliver 54 homes at Jubilee Place, located at the former Corus steelworks site in Deeside.

Plans form phase three of the masterplan for the Northern Gateway, a key strategic site in the Flintshire Local Plan, which calls for 1,300 homes and 200 acres of employment land to be built there.

Jubilee Place will introduce a mixture of houses and apartments on a four-acre brownfield plot.

Homes delivered will feature two one-, four two-, 29 three-, and 19 four-bedroom properties.

There will be 10% affordable housing provision provided.

Lichfields is the scheme’s planning consultant. Also on the project team is landscape architect Highstone Design and transport consultant Curtins.

Imogen Zulver, senior planner at Lichfields, said: “We are working with property developers and local planning authorities to ensure schemes like this are both viable and a welcome addition to local areas, contributing towards providing high quality homes for local people.

“The Jubilee Place scheme will be a terrific development, creating a sustainable residential neighbourhood within walking distance of local amenities”, she continued. “It will undoubtedly contribute positively
to this part of the local area and we look forward to work on the project getting started.”

The scheme will provide 49 affordable homes. Credit: via council report

Field West of Highmere Drive

Application number: FUL/000034/22

Edwards Homes can get to work to deliver 141 houses on the 12-acre site in Connah’s Quay.

The scheme will provide 24 two-, 100 three-, and 17 four-bedroom houses, accessed off Highmere Drive.

Pedestrian and cycle access will also be created off Pembry Rise and Courbet Drive.

Of the 141 homes, 49 will be affordable.

Plans will also see 87,000 sq ft of public open space provided across three areas.

Each three-bedroom house will be provided with two car parking spaces, while the four-bedroom houses will have three spaces.

Councillors approved Edwards Homes’ proposals, despite local residents’ concerns regarding highway safety and the scheme’s impact on protected species.

The project team includes planning consultant D S Jones, transport consultant Pell Frischmann, arboricultural consultant Tree Solutions, and noise consultant Echo Acoustics.

Proposals include a mix of bungalows, detached, and semi-detached houses. Credit: via planning documents

Land adjacent to Ffordd Pennant

Application number: OUT/000496/22

Developer Drivestandard has been granted outline permission to build up to 64 homes on a five-acre greenfield plot off Maes Pennant Road in Mostyn.

Barry Newcombe Associates designed the scheme, which will deliver a mix of detached, and semi-detached houses.

Initial proposals feature one three- and two two-bedroom bungalows, as well as 43 three- and 18 four-bedroom homes.

The scheme will provide 15% housing provision on the site, amounting to 10 homes.

Avison Young is the planning consultant for the scheme. The project team also includes transport consultant SCP and arboricultural consultant Shields Arboricultural Consultancy. JBA Consulting is advising on flood risk.

The post Flintshire approves 259 homes appeared first on Place North West.

THIS WEEK

• Supply-side inflation: like so much else, student housing development is getting squeezed
• Elevator pitch: your weekly rundown of who is going up, and who is heading the other way

STUDENT HOUSING TAKES A SUMMER BREAK

Pipeline problems

A Singapore investor backs a York student housing scheme. Yet something funny is going on in the pipeline for purpose-built student accommodation.

It’s only days since Singapore private equity business Q Investment Partners backed S Harrison’s 300-bedroom PBSA scheme in York, as Place Yorkshire reported. It will be ready for the 2025 student intake and operated by the Prestige Student Living brand Homes for Students. The deal came as a 212-bed student tower at Wade Lane in Leeds topped out while developer Integritas launched a new phase of its Bijou student housing scheme in Bradford.

You love PBSA

This reads like the familiar story of the last five or six years: investors loving PBSA because it provides assured long-term income based on solid demographic shifts. If you’re Big Money and you’ve had a belly full of risk, PBSA feels like the sweet spot.

Reasons to be cheerful

So is everything going well? Up to a point, yes. But look a little further into the future and the picture is mixed. Data shared exclusively with Subplot by rental platform StuRents shows a sharp and sustained fall in the volume of planning applications for new student housing development. Planning applications continue to decline, down 33% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. The numbers have been falling steadily since 2016 (from annualised 75,000 to about 35,000) although there are strong regional variations. Richard Ward, head of research at StuRents, says: “Due to construction industry constraints and interest rate hikes, delivery of PBSA has slowed in recent years.”

Young people

What makes this puzzling is that the demographics point in the opposite direction – to more, not less, forward-demand for PBSA. “A recent report from UCAS indicates that by 2030 there could be 30% more applicants compared with 2022, with growth driven largely by changes to UK demographics that will result in more 18-year-olds,” says Ward. At the same time as demand goes up, so the supply of alternatives to PBSA falls through the floor. Savills looked at the shared rental housing stock, in particular five-bed properties of the kind students go for, and says there are 31% fewer than the pre-2020 average (thanks to landlords pulling out of rental, mostly).

Less not more

All this ought to mean tonnes more planning applications – but it doesn’t seem to be working like that. Savills says there are just 144,000 beds in the UK pipeline and barely 35,000 of those are under construction. As a result, occupancy levels are at record highs, supporting rental growth of around 7%, according to Unite and Empiric, which is expected to drive continued strong investment returns over the coming years. Durham is increasingly hot, whilst Manchester is super-hot. The market is strong enough in Newcastle and Sheffield for Investec Real Estate to stump up £85m to refinance and refurbish Global Student Accommodation’s PBSA in both cities (and in three other locations).

Demographic bubble

So, time for explanations, which is where it gets tricky. There are two strong possibilities. Number one is those demographics. Says Ward: “Looking further ahead, the 18-year-old population is set to decline significantly post-2030 – something that investors should be looking at when making long-term decisions about PBSA.” Is that it, then? A bubble in the supply of 18-year-old students – here soon, gone soon after – is causing investors to play cautious?

Dollars matter

Or is this all about money, and where it’s coming from? A staggering £7.8bn was invested in PBSA in 2022, an increase of 89% on 2021. The overwhelming bulk of that money came from two places: US (47%) and Singapore (24%). The dollar-sterling exchange rate makes UK real estate cheap(ish), and the exchange rate is more favourable for dollar investors today than in 2022. A long-term view, plus good maths, explains QIP’s investment in York. But, be honest, if you’re a bit twitchy, and the world is your oyster, would you invest in the UK just now? Well, exactly. You’d wait.

Wait a little

Savills said in early May 2023 that it expected overseas money to return to PBSA later this year as rising rents offset increased operational and construction costs. But the mood on inflation, interest rates, and recessionary risk has soured sharply in the last seven weeks. Construction costs don’t appear to be crumbling, although input price growth is slowing according to the latest PMI data. While there’s plenty of capital waiting to invest in the next three years, you’d have to assume most of it will arrive closer to 2026/2027 than 2023/2024.

In the meantime, rents will keep going up. And that – drum roll – is what deep-set, endemic, supply-side inflation means.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Going up, or going down? This week’s movers

A good time to invest in hotels, a bad time to accept cooperation from Whitehall. Doors closing, going up.

Hotel excitement

A rash of hotel proposals suggests the leisure sector is as busy, and as supply-constrained, as yesterday’s inflation figures seem to suggest. The latest crop includes progress on Ask:Patrizia’s 344-bedroom, dual-branded 181,000 sq ft Novotel and Ibis hotel at Baltic Quarter on Gateshead Quayside, and proposals for an aparthotel at Leeds Kirkgate Market and the refurb of George Hotel in Huddersfield.

Revenue per room (RevPAR) is rising in most places, with Hull scooping a place in the Top 5 according to Colliers’ regular review of the sector, which you can download here. Hull was also given star billing as the UK’s most favoured growth centre, easily trumping distant rival Plymouth. York remains the North’s star performer and one of the UK’s most favourable places to build if you match land and development costs against potential revenue.

Whitehall listening

Whitehall’s latest snub to the North’s transport ambitions has a distinct whiff of Yes Minister, the 1980s political TV comedy. The story so far: pending a massive government rethink, Northern Powerhouse Rail is probably dead but it continues to live a ghostly afterlife in the minutes and agendas of Transport for the North, the supra-regional quango chaired by former Tory transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin. TfN is justifiably angry that it has been side-lined and wrote a stiff letter to the Department for Transport explaining how valuable regional input could be. Talks with Whitehall followed and a careful reading of a report to today’s TfN board is sadly hilarious.

TfN wants to “co-sponsor” the NPR project in a more meaningful way. DfT responded with an assurance that it valued TfN’s advice and that the quango was welcome to write with its views whenever it liked, eg it offered precisely nothing. TfN officials then counter-offered: how about we have regular face-to-face chats and you let us share what comes up with local councils, in confidence? A modest ask, but departmental officials sucked their teeth and said (paragraph 3.8) that they will have to ask ministers what they think – which implies they didn’t bother up to this point, and that the whole teensy-weensy-itsy-bitsy concession may be withdrawn anyway (subtext: so don’t push your luck, you regional upstarts). This little episode – warm blah blah, but a fuss over the meanest cooperation – tells you Whitehall is definitely not letting go.

The post The Subplot | Student housing, Whitehall trouble, happy hotels appeared first on Place North West.