黑洞社区

Major commercial developers Argent and Great Portland Estates have warned navigating the planning system is getting 鈥渉arder鈥� and councils are under-resourced to deal with major applications.

Speaking at a 黑洞社区 Live debate on the commercial sector, chaired by BD editor Thomas Lane, Argent partner Tony Giddings said dealing with planning was 鈥済etting harder鈥�, adding: 鈥淧lanning applications can take yonks and the political aspects can do my head in.鈥�

James Pellatt, head of projects at Great Portland Estates (GPE), agreed planning challenges were making it 鈥渕uch harder to get going with development鈥�.

He added that yesterday鈥檚 announcement of 55% budget cuts for local authorities by George Osborne as part of the Spending Review came 鈥渁t a time when we need more people to get consents through鈥�.

The only way to deal with the planning bottlenecks Pellatt said was to 鈥渆mploy more planning officers鈥� as they 鈥渄o a good job, it is just a resource issue鈥�.

On one particular GPE project, Pellatt said they were having trouble getting the Section 106 agreement completed and therefore could not start on the scheme - six lawyers had already been involved.

Kevin Chapman, UK head of offices at LendLease, added that planning officers were not helped by the 鈥渓evel of complexity鈥� now in buildings.

The complexity stems partly from end users and tenants becoming more demanding and requiring much more from their building.

Chapman added that occupiers are getting 鈥渁 lot more sophisticated with what they want buildings to do鈥�.

鈥淕eneration Z is very mobile so the likes of London have to up the game in terms of office stock and the creativity of buildings鈥�.

The panel welcomed the escalation of tender prices as trade contractors had been suffering, while Giddings said developers had benefitted from rising rents and yield compression.

Pellatt added that GPE wanted their trade contractors to profit from working with them so that they would continue to do so. However, he sounded a note of caution in regards to the hyper inflation of finishing trades, which has happened because of the surge of overseas investment in high end residential development , as the 鈥渟upply chain may get caught out鈥� if overseas investors walk away from jobs.

He added that it was likely the Chinese would 鈥渂uy a uk contractor鈥� but was unsure how well they would negotiate with the UK supply chain.

Giddings said he quite liked the Chinese as they had 鈥渂ought loads of our apartments鈥�.

He added 鈥渢he future does look rosy for commercial development鈥�, but said 鈥渢here is a real concern about operating buildings cost effectively.鈥�