Maidenhead site in British Land grab

Grenfell Island, a road locked office and leisure complex in the centre of Maidenhead, Berks. has been acquired by British Land in what can be seen as a pre-emptive strike in the great Crossrail dash.  Grenfell Island is ideally situated opposite the rail station in Maidenhead and comprises some 113,000ft² of high quality office space together with a cinema and health club.  British Land purchased the 9.5 year unexpired lease term from the private vendor for £75 million.  The building is let to Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, and is the UK headquarters of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, a telecommunications and data services provider.

Maidenhead is at the western end of the new Crossrail line, which, when completed, will link the town with Heathrow, the West End, the City and Canary Wharf with high frequency fast rail services.  Having endured a period of slow decline on recent years it is hoped and anticipated that this will be the first of many such acquisitions and developments that look to cash in on the capital growth that the advent of the new line is hoped to bring.

The Crossrail project carries a £15.9 billion budget and the current programme sees services starting to run in the central section in London following the completion of the main infrastructure works at the end of 2018, with the outlying services following in the months after.  The project will see the implementation of many innovative engineering and technical solutions and programmes.  There are also many other Health & Safety initiatives, including specialised training for over 4,000 lorry drivers to highlight the skills required to navigate the capital’s roads.

Nuclear New Build UK Sites Announced

The Government has released details of the locations for the sites of the next generation of new build nuclear power generating stations.

The locations are at Bradwell in Essex, Hinkley Point, Somerset, Oldbury in Gloucestershire, Sellafield in West Cumbria, Sizewell in Suffolk and Wylfa on Anglesey, Hartlepool, Teeside & Heysham in Lancashire.  Each if the proposed sites is adjacent to an existing licensed nuclear site owned by either the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) or British Energy (BE).  During 2009/2010 the Government instructed that surplus land adjacent to licensed sited that were in public ownership be disposed of, netting a very tidy sum for the public coffers and it is anticipated that this land will form part of the new build programme.

The development of new power generating capacity for the UK is essential as by the end of the decade a significant proportion of the existing capacity will close, indeed by December 2017 there will a significant downturn in output as the generating capacity of some of the older generating stations is scheduled to come to an end.

Time passes slowly in the nuclear industry and the announcement of the sites is but the first step in the construction and commissioning of a nuclear power station.  There is the not insignificant challenge of tackling that other leviathan that is the planning process.  It is assumed that applications will come under the auspices of the Major Infrastructure Planning Unit, although how long this process will take is debatable.  With the huge numbers of interested parties involved the hoped for swift and efficient planning system may be stretched to the limit.

Outsourced Services Sector

The Business Services Association (http://www.bsa-org.com/) has released details of a report prepared by Oxford Economics relating to the outsourced services sector in both the public and private sector.  It is reported that the outsourced services sector in the UK now has an annual value of £207bn, equating to approx. 8% of the UK economy.

Defined as being services provided under a time bound agreement, with some element of delegated authority and which typically in the past would have been provided by an organisation's employed staff, the outsourced services sector now rivals the financial services sector in terms of size (the financial services equates to 8.1% of the UK economy).

 The range of services falling into this category is vast and includes waste management, call centre operations, IT and data services, facilities management services and real estate and asset management provision.  The sector accounts for 10% of the total workforce, with in excess of 3 million people employed in the sector, nearly 600,000 engaged in property management related activities including cleaning and maintenance alone.

The sector makes a significant contribution to UK plc with £14bn a year being paid in corporation tax, employee NI contributions and business rates with a further £21bn coming from employee income tax and NI.

Secondary PFI Market

The BBC Business website ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/ ) reports that there are significant concerns that HM Treasury is failing to monitor PFI projects adequately and that excessive profits have been made by organisations involved in the PFI market.  HM Treasury records do not reflect the billions of ponds of profit made by companies by selling on their equity shares in PFI projects on the secondary PFI market.  These concerns regarding the transactions and those surrounding the lack of information at HM Treasury come as two parliamentary committees are convened to take an in-depth look at the PFI.

The Treasury Committee is hearing evidence in connection with its enquiries into the future of PFI, the objective to determine whether PFI has represented value for money for the taxpayer. Shortly after the Public Accounts Committee will investigate what can be taken from the experience of the roll-out of PFI and what improvement could be made for any future projects that may be undertaken.

Opinions run high on both sides of the discussion, with a number of members of Parliament declaring that the PFI process must be clear and transparent with levels of profit reflecting genuine return on investment and, of course, demonstrating good value for money for the public purse.  The  Public Private Partnership Forum, an industry body for the PFI industry, has said the profits made were a fair reflection of the risks taken on by the financiers and builders of the projects.

More than 700 hospitals, schools, prisons and other public sector projects have been built under the PFI scheme.

Lights out in Italy?

The Italians have voted by a 94% majority against the introduction of nuclear power generation to the country.
A pretty resounding rejection of this proposal bucks the trend in Europe and leaves the question as to how their future requirements will be met.

Govt to release land for building

The Government plans to release 1,000s of acres of previously developed land for alternate usage. It is expected that by the Autumn this year each Department with significant surplus land holdings will produce plans detailing those areas to be made available. This Central Goverment initiative is expected to be followed by local Councils, many of whom also retain surplus land banks.
The potential impact on the housing sector is anticipated to be significant, with many in the sector already welcoming this initiative.