Newsroom

Landlords target needy retailers

The British Property Federation (BPF) has today reacted with incredulity to a British Retail Consortium (BRC) press release, based on a survey of just 19 firms, questioning the support the property industry has provided to retail occupiers during the recession.

The BRC’s press release stresses that quarterly rental terms “are wrong in principle” – the BPF questions how the difference between a quarter and a month can be “wrong in principle”?

The release also brands monthly terms on one in eight existing leases (12%) as “shameful”, but fails to explain that many landlords have to also take account of their other interests, shareholders, pensioners, who rely on the income being generated by rents, and bankers, whose permissions for switching from quarterly to monthly terms and therefore changing the terms of a lease is usually necessary.

Commenting on the British Retail Consortium’s release, Liz Peace, Chief Executive of the BPF, stressed:

“What this recession has shown is that where landlords and occupiers are willing to engage in dialogue the best results can be achieved, and it is disappointing therefore when one side acts unilaterally like this.

"The retail sector is not the only one that has suffered during the recession. Indeed, the British Retail Consortium’s remarks are extremely ill-timed bearing in mind the Bank of England’s analysis last week that failure of the commercial property sector was one of the key remaining threats to the country’s financial stability.

"Not every retailer is struggling, as recent sales figures and company results show, and what the property sector has done very effectively over this recession is to target assistance at those retail occupiers who can be helped through difficult times, hence the figure of 12%. Indeed, several household names such as JJB Sports, Focus DIY and Blacks Leisure, owe their continued existence to the flexibility of their landlords, not their bankers or other retailers.

"The nation’s landlords do not expect thanks for their efforts, but in season of peace and goodwill, a little more appreciation of the wider economy’s woes and not just retailers, would not go a miss.”

For more information and all PR and media queries, please contact Andrew Teacher, Head of Media, on 020 7802 0113 / ateacher@bpf.org.uk or Ian Fletcher, Director of Policy (Real Estate), on 020 7802 0112 / ifletcher@bpf.org.uk.