Tag Archives: Nottingham

Apr 25 2012

Nottingham – The Mayor debate rages on…

The debate about the Nottingham Mayor continues to rage with our former Nottingham MP Alan Simpson wading into the debate. You can read his comments here.

It’s an interesting take on the arguments. On the one hand Alan seems to be suggesting the current system is fine and on the other he takes some swipes at the leadership. The phrases I picked out…

“NOTTINGHAM needs an elected mayor like a dog needs flippers. It is a delusion to think they would make the dog a better swimmer, or the city better governed. This has nothing to do with how much an elected mayor would cost. It is about democracy and Accountability.”

But then….

“My prediction is that all the things you might criticise the city council for today, you would get in spades with an elected mayor. Mates will get favoured, patronage will go unchallenged, books will remain closed, and “vision” will come a poor second to vanity.

Nottingham may have lost its way, but you can’t blame this on the absence of an elected mayor. We have a first-class public transport system, a really good ice arena, a community energy company in The Meadows widely regarded as a national beacon, two good universities and a number of outstanding authors, architects, designers and artists. Beyond this, we are strictly second division.

Good governance demands strong opposition as well as visionary leadership. Nottingham has neither. This is the council’s Achilles heel. To demolish the case for a mayor, it must open its own books and then be more imaginative.

Nottingham could be part of this, but we have to break from a culture of contentedness that holds the city back. Pride and ambition are not qualities you can claim for yourself, without inviting ridicule.

Making a stand for something better has nothing to do with mayors. Cities driving the most exciting changes do so because their citizens demand it. And those cities have real powers. Ours do not.”

Looks like a pretty damning view of the current arrangements to me? It’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the status quo? Perhaps this is my point, the current arrangements are past their sell by date. We need a new way?

Apr 24 2012

The market has slowed (stopped)?

The market at the moment is quite odd. There seems to be a bit of activity; we are seeing a bit of movement in property. I have got some bids in on property I’m selling and I have just bought some property too. Getting deals over the line is pretty tough – due diligence is painful at best. Deals fall out of bed easily – often at the eleventh hour and often without warning.

But the latest figures suggest all is not well in the property world.

It seems that the total value of UK commercial property investment transactions in the first quarter of the year was £7.53 billion, down 27% on the same period for 2011. We had hoped that 2012 would be the start of a recovery.

Central London office investment broke £4 billion for the quarter – the highest figure since the financial crisis

Overseas investors spent £3 billion during the first quarter – representing 42% of all purchases. Interesting that the cash coming in is not from ‘here’.

Retail investment fell from £3.15 billion in the first quarter of 2011 to £1.42 billion in the latest quarter.

So statistically we are in a bad place. The real issue here is liquidity. There is little money around, Bank borrowing is not exactly easy. Loan To Value rates are poor – meaning you have to have quite a lot of equity to put into a deal.

My real issue is that I can’t see what is changing in the short term? The Banks have a negative attitude to any sort of risk at the moment – property is seen as risky. This doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon?

Apr 16 2012

David Richmond RIP

I heard this morning that David Richmond – one of my lecturers at Nottingham Trent University (‘The Poly’ in those days) has passed away.

David was an amazing man. We all bought his book – an Introduction to Valuation. It was essential reading for those of us who struggled with what then seemed like alien concepts. His lectures exuded calm and patience. It was essential to go as we wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise.

He was hugely encouraging towards me personally. I hadn’t seen him for many years – until an Alumni event two years ago – we met up with Michael Parkinson (He’s second from the left in the picture). He was on great form that evening.

He was a lifelong supporter of Notts County – and they put out a really touching announcement on their web site last week. You can read it here.

It’s a sad day for the Surveying fraternity. David will be missed.

UPDATE

I had an email from Paul Collins last night with the funeral arrangements for David:

Wednesday 25 April 2012

1.15 pm – Sutton-in-Ashfield United and Reformed Church. The church has a capacity of 600, so all are welcome to attend. The Reverend says parking is tight, but you can also use spaces at St Joseph’s Social Club which is across the road.

2.45 pm – Mansfield Crematorium

Family request no flowers, but say a donation to the Sutton-in-Ashfield United and Reformed Church is what David would have wanted

Apr 16 2012

Ugly Buildings?

At the weekend the Telegraph were running a picture story – trying to get votes for the ugliest buildings in the world. It was a pretty woeful collection.It can be found here.

This one is my ‘favourite’ by a long way – it’s the Longaberger Basket Company building in Newark, Ohio. Unbelievably it is a real building and was opened in 1997. It has seven storeys and accommodates 180,000 sq ft of offices. It was inspired by what they make apparently?

It’s difficult to follow the thought process of the Architect here. Maybe he had a brush too far with his ‘literal’ class that day? It is certainly quite appalling. What were they thinking? The only thing that could have improved it would have been a gingham roof?

There are some others too – well worth scrolling through. I think the inclusion of ArcelorMittal Orbit tower is a bit harsh…

This got me thinking about Nottingham’s ugliest building. There are some contenders, but my favourite (least favourite I mean) is the Players Horizon factory. Built in 1972 when Architects had a concrete-fetish (some still do) it really is the ugliest building I know in Nottingham. It was built as Players moved out of the assortment of buildings they owned in Radford. It makes 120 million cigarettes a day. And that is the extent of the ‘wow’ factor. It is perhaps the most depressing of styles, the concrete is a sea of grey other ‘features’ are brown.

It was designed by Arup – who do some stunning buildings and structures now, but I don’t recall seeing this one on their brochures. Their web site makes the merest hint of their involvement!

Any takers on other ugly buildings? The Playhouse? The Evening Post Building? The Eastcroft Incinerator? Marco Island?

Apr 13 2012

Nottingham Contemporary – Thomas Demand

Last night I was at the Nottingham Contemporary again. This time it was an evening with the currently showing artist Thomas Demand. He was in conversation with Milan-based architect, researcher and editor in chief of Domus magazine, Joseph Grima.

The event was packed – it was over-subscribed. I guess there were over 100 people there. There was also a simultaneous live web-cast – which was recorded and remains on the web site here.

Domus is well respected in Architectural circles having been around since 1928. It has covered the work of John Lautner – and architect who was the inspiration for Demand’s latest exhibition. Lautner was an Architect who divided opinion – but who’s work has been widely critiqued. He was apparently a poor draftsman – and relied heavily on his models – which others then drew from. It was eight models held at the Getty Museum in LA which provided the material for Demand’s images.

Demand explained his interest in the models. These were ‘real’ three dimensional forms which were used to demonstrate the buildings, in a way which CAD or CGI’s can’t do. We have become used to the latter in our everyday lives – they permeate our world of film and game, as well as architecture.

He also touched on the work of Frank Ghery – Ghery is probably my favourite Architect and I thought his work at the Sci-Fi Museum and Experience Music Project in Seattle is just genius. Ghery works with paper and card to produce his whimsical models – which then form the basis of the actual building.

I thought the talk was a fascinating insight into how an artist works. He sees photographs as ‘indexical’, in other words a representation of what is in front of the camera. But they can, by using abstract composition provide a different perspective and become less of a record. It is interesting that his time at Getty was limited and there are rules which prevented him from taking photographs with flash, or by using a tripod. He took between 600-700 photographs for the handful you now see.

I liked in particular one of his phrases – “If I don’t love what I do, who else will love it”. It seemed to me that this was a similar perspective of Steve Jobs at Apple.

The Contemporary does this sort of thing well – a great venue and a unique opportunity to see and hear an artist who is regarded as being at the top of his game. Well done Nottingham Contemporary…

Apr 12 2012

Mayor Part Two….

I promise not to blog about the Mayoral issue again at least for a few days…

Last night there was a letter at home for my son, he shared the contents with me.

The headlines:
1. £1m wasted
2. Fat Cat Pay – £120k pa. for Mayor
3. Corruption – one person to influence.
4. No Say – local Councillors have no say.
5. Stalemate – one party Mayor, the other party in control = arguing.

Oh, and “After 718 years, the Tories plan to scrap Nottingham’s traditional Mayor and Sheriff and replace them with an extra Mayor costing more than £1m“

Is this it?

1. I still don’t get the £1m figure (or is it ‘more than £1m’) – the cost of a referendum and two elections seems to be estimated at £300k? The rest must be salary?
2. Fat Cat Pay (ignore the emotive stuff) I wonder where the figure comes from – the average suggested by Government is £88,267? And savings could be made as some of the roles are duplicated?
3. Corruption – doesn’t even warrant a discussion. Suggest they need to look close to home on this one.
4. No say – not sure this is entirely correct. The Mayor doesn’t abolish the Council.
5. So the Labour party assume that the Mayor would be Tory? Do they know something we don’t?

Where is the suggestion we would lose the Sheriff of Nottingham? Is this just emotive clap-trap?

Come on guys – we can do better than this in the debate surely. This is small time politics and pure spin in part. Time for a grown up discussion?

The thing I don’t really understand is why Labour have thrown in the towel? Surely it would be better to embrace the process – and with their present power base you might expect them to romp home to victory?

Apr 11 2012

YES to Mayor….

With just over three weeks to go before Nottingham goes to the polls to decide whether to have a Mayor or not the level of debate has been woeful at best. The highlight of news coverage seems to have been that the Council spent £900 on posters for the ‘no’ campaign when they shouldn’t have done.

It seems to me that the present leadership are opposed to the idea predominantly on the basis of the cost. The tweets of the leader of the Council are generally produced by “£1m Mayor” followed by why we can’t afford it? Is this as good as the argument gets – it’s about the money?

It is suggested that the cost over 4 years will be £1m. But it is difficult to see what that figure is made up of. It suits the Politicians to wrap the no argument up in cost issues.

They say Nottingham can ill-afford it against the background of the swingeing cuts. But frankly some of the cuts were overdue. Indeed in the private sector, we were cutting as soon as the recession hit – not two years afterwards, when backed into a corner.

But I have two particular concerns. The first is our perception nationally. Our reputation in Whitehall is hardly good. We are after all, the only Council in the Country who will not publish expenditure over £500. The new Mayors are to be invited to two Prime Minister led cabinets each year. Do we really want to be kept out of those meetings? Is this where future big projects will get aired? Probably.

Then there is how the City is performing. Certainly there are some great things here, but do these happen in spite of the Council? Does the City really have ambition as it says? The world of 2012 is very different and the opportunities are fewer than ever. It is tough out there. We have some great assets, but are these capitalised on? One example is The Castle and Robin Hood. It’s a joke. I left the Sheriffs Commission two years ago – sadly another talking shop. This needs shaking up!

Nottingham could be a great place – but the current set-up isn’t taking it forward in my view. We need a change…

So I vote Yes for a Mayor.

What do you think?

Apr 6 2012

The commercial property market – what next?

After I wrote my ‘spring in the step‘ piece earlier in the week, my illusion was swiftly shattered by the publication of data from PropertyData yesterday. My monthly bulletin showing the Investment deals was the first three months of 2012 analysis.

In essence £5.8bn of property was transacted in three months.Which is a lot of cash, but is around half of the amount transacted in the same period in 2011. It’s worse too than 2010, but marginally better than the grim 2009.

But this is a skewed market. Of the transactions reported 55% were in the Central London office market! The scraps were spread around the regions!

Interestingly the average yield has come down – it is now 5.83% – which is a refection on where the money is going – i.e. London. The lower the yield the more expensive the property…

There’s very little Bank cash to throw around, enquiries are limited and so perhaps my spring feeling was short-lived. A bit like the weather.

With blue skies one day and snow the next – who’d be a weatherman or valuer in these times?

Apr 5 2012

I must have stopped counting….

There was a time when I marked blog hits with a little picture… But I wondered way the milestones ought to be when I passed 100,000 hits. Well today I went through 120,000 – which is pretty amazing – so thanks for dropping by. 

I guess 150,000 hits is worth celebrating?

In the meantime, I’ll try to keep up the posts. I think there may be a Mayoral flavour over the next few weeks. I would be really interested in learning what peoples views are on the Mayor argument. I think it would be a good thing, but the No campaign clearly have a view that it is a waste of money…

In the meantime, I’ll try to also bring you more news on Nottingham and anything else that catches my eye!

Apr 5 2012

Nottingham – The Workplace Parking Levy

The new Workplace Parking Levy (Tax) came into force this week and I have deliberately avoided blogging about it until now. I have been thinking this one through. I’m not sure I am closer to a conclusion, but I do have some thoughts.

Firstly the positive. I think we should plan our transport for the long term. We need to find better ways of getting people around that the motor car. That doesn’t apply to me, of course. This is because I need my car for my work (not to mention the fact that I can be allergic to some of the nutters you find on public transport).

The tram seems a pretty good thing – after all that’s what the WPL(T) is paying for. In some small way I will benefit as it will come past my office window – although if it dings more than once a week I shall be unhappy.

But then some of the negatives.

As a business we have decided not to pass on the charges to our staff. This is partly as we have three offices and how we could charge on office but both the others seems to be difficult. Then there is the charge itself – £288 this year for every space where there are more than 10 at the workplace. Then 2013 sees the WPL rise to £334, while the subsequent two years will see the WPL(T) increase to £364 and £381. That’s 32% over 3 years. Wow.

Then there’s the small matter of ‘marginal taxation’. There’s no such thing when it comes to WPL(T). If you have 10 spaces you pay £0.00. If you have 11 you pay £3,168. I’m not sure this is right or fair.

Business is tough at the moment and adding this sort of overhead to the firm is not helpful. We bring people into the City to work, we generate jobs and prosperity.

As a firm we have already started to see incoming business ask whether a property is caught by the WPL(T). That could be a slippery slope?