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2008/09 - winter

ACTIVITIES REPORT

Here's a brief overview of what we've been up to in the  four months from December 2008 to February 2009.  

Commercial

  • we have had strong cross-party support for our amendments to the Business Rate Supplements Bill concerning BIDs and are arranging a meeting with the minister, John Healey, with help from Nick Raynsford MP. We also have our supporters lined up in the Lords, covering the parties, and led by Baroness Jo Valentine.
  • we had a full house of 90 attend a recent breakfast seminar on the insurance implications of flooding, which included a sneak preview of the Thames Estuary 2100 strategy, which Government will issue for consultation at the end of March.
  • our Commercial Committee has also spent time considering pre-pack administrations, but this issue is covered elsewhere on the agenda.

Communications (media, public affairs, member relations and events)

  • we issued 29 press releases on a wide range of issues and continued to receive some excellent coverage in the broadcast media and national and trade press.
  • we generated a forecast of membership subscriptions income for 2009 on which the BPF budget was based; we subsequently issued the invoices, and reminders, and are carefully monitoring payments.
  • we launched the All Party Parliamentary Urban Development Group's report on regeneration and local jobs and received some good media coverage for it.
  • we began work on the 2009 BPF conference and have put together an excellent range of speakers. We are now working on the marketing materials. In addition to assisting in the organising of the residential dinner and conference, we co-hosted an event in Birmingham with Wragge & Co. and gave media support to the Movers & Shakers breakfast with Boris Johnson.
  • we have begun work on the BPF annual review for 2008/09 and the annual report 2008.

Construction

  • our Construction Committee has been collaborating with the Construction Clients Group to produce a survey of clients concerning the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007.
  • we are currently undertaking some research into ways to ameliorate the difficulties, delays and inefficiencies which arise in utilities connections.
  • we made early representations on the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill and are broadly satisfied with the construction contracts aspects in the unamended bill.

Finance and investment

  • we are continuing to work, and have dialogue with officials, on how fiscal incentives might be used to encourage the greening of existing commercial buildings.
  • we are continuing our campaign for the reintroduction of relief from business rates for empty property, have met with John Healey and are seeking a meeting with Angela Eagle MP at the Treasury. Our work has concentrated on a more scientific analysis of the impact of the current rules, and on exploring how relief might be targeted (recognising that a partial, targeted, fix may be more achievable than reinstatement of the position before their introduction).
  • we are continuing our dialogue with officials and other stakeholders in pursuit of changes to the tax regime that will support greater institutional investment in residential property, including through changes to the REIT regime that would encourage its growth more generally. We have had detailed discussions with officials about a possible SDLT relief for bulk purchases of dwellings.
  • we have been working with members and engaging with Government to identify measures that would make it easier for REITs to conserve cash in the face of difficult financial and market conditions and tight regulation of their behaviour.
  • we have continued to work with EPRA and a coalition led by the EPF that are developing very similar proposals for tackling the tax issues that currently complicate cross border investment in European real estate using REITs. And we continue to work closely with EPRA and other members of the Real Estate Equity Securitisation Alliance (REESA) on a number of current financial reporting issues.
  • we have met with officials about, and are developing an appropriate response to, the first phase of the reform of the taxation of companies' foreign profits (dividend exemption and worldwide debt cap).
  • our lobbying appears to have been successful in minimising the impact on real estate transactions of proposed anti-avoidance legislation that will change the tax treatment of premiums received in return for certain transfers of income streams.
  • our new monthly VAT newsletter, produced for us by Martin Scammell, was launched last November and has attracted a good level of interest among our members.

Planning

  • our Planning Committee has been helping CLG establish what needs to be done to implement recommendation 8 of the Killian Pretty Review - creating a new mechanism to deal with minor material amendments rather than having to submit a whole new application.
  • we are continuing to have private discussions with CLG about community infrastructure levy, and will begin an extensive consultation with members on the CIL regulations when they are published.
  • we have arranged for Janice Morphet to give a presentation about her step-by-step guide to infrastructure planning at an event on 24 March - you should have received an email invitation to this.

Regeneration and development

  • we are meeting with government officials, and are lobbying MP's to pressure government into issuing clarifying guidance, on the over zealous interpretation of EU procurement rules following a decision by the European Court of Justice (Jean Auroux and Others v Commune de Roanne).
  • we held an initial meeting with CLG and Treasury officials to discuss the Government's views on tax increment financing (TIF), following the publication of our TIFs discussion paper. We received encouraging feedback and have agreed to do some further thinking and share this with officials.
  • our Regeneration and Development Committee will shortly issue a brief regeneration manifesto. It will focus on: TIF districts; public sector use of assets and resources to support regeneration; using public sector equity and guarantees to attract private finance; and the reintroduction of enterprise zones.

Residential

  • we have been developing a model to illustrate the financial dynamics of an institutional funded build-to-let sector and have been engaging in dialogue with the HCA and GLA on their support for institutional investment in the private rented sector.
  • we recently hosted a highly successful annual residential dinner and conference, with speakers including Grants Shapps MP, David Pretty, Sir Bob Kerslake, Julie Rugg and Peter Marsh. Both events were sell outs, with about 180 and 250 attendees respectively.
  • we have been working on a voluntary code for our residential members and a plain English assured shorthold tenancy agreement, which can be completed interactively on the web. Both initiatives will be launched in March.
  • we are awaiting the Housing Minister's feedback on the Rugg Review, which we were very instrumental in shaping, and which has generally been well received within the industry. The change of minister means the Housing Green Paper timetable keeps slipping.
  • we have been busy with parliamentarians on housing benefit issues and have two meetings lined up with the Benefits Minister, Kitty Ussher MP.

Scottish Property Federation

  • we organised our second highly successful SPF annual conference, attracting almost 200 delegates, with input from a Scottish Government minister and four front bench spokesmen.
  • we are pressing the Scottish Government to understand the serious issues facing the property industry in this current economic downturn. We have helped host GVA Grimley sponsored meetings with Scottish Ministers and have organised functions with Ernst & Young and Harper Macleod.
  • we are asking local authorities to consider deferring developer contributions until point of sale or letting.
  • using the current Scottish Government consultation on planning agreements, we are arguing for more proportionate and reasonable s75 agreements (the equivalent of s106 in England).
  • we are pleased the Scottish Government has publicly committed to working with local authorities to scope the feasibility of TIFs, and we are meeting PricewaterhouseCoopers who provided work to Edinburgh Council to set up an advanced model for a pilot TIF.
  • we are meeting with the statutory consultees to discuss their role in the new planning system and have engaged with the Scottish Government on the Scottish Planning Policy series - seeking to ensure that core principles of interest to the industry are not lost.
  • we continue to impress upon the Government the need to measure the operational energy use of buildings and are pleased that the matter of effective energy efficiency policies has been raised with the Government's Regulatory ‘Tsar' by an MSP (who has recently become a Government minister).
  • we have been lobbying against the proposal of a new energy efficiency assessment for Scottish commercial property owners, regardless of whether their property was being transacted or not (which is different from EPCs).
  • we will be meeting with the Government, following its internal review of the private rented sector, to consider residential investment in private rented accommodation, including the opportunities, barriers and issues for the private rented sector.

Sustainability

  • we are discussing with the Carbon Trust the expansion of the LES-TER toolset to the retail sector.
  • we are continuing to work with the UK Green Building Council on the possible creation of a property sector supplement under the Global Reporting Initiative.
  • we are continuing to monitor the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and its recasting, while liaising with CLG.
  • we have convened a small group to examine the Government's consultation on ‘Zero Carbon Definition, Code for Sustainable Homes and New Non-Domestic Buildings'.
  • we are also considering the Department for Energy and Climate Change's consultation on energy efficiency and heat, which will incorporate proposals on the improvement of the existing domestic and non-domestic stock.
  • we collaborated with BRC and BCSC in the production of a short guide on the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), launched in mid-February, with further guidance to be drafted by the group.
  • we are contributing to both the Better Buildings Partnership's Green Lease Working Group, which is producing a green principles document, and to the Sub-Group of the Lease Code Working Group.

Related committees:

Latest 2008/09 - winter documents:

No matching 2008/09 - winter documents found.

 

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