LISTEN: Jenrick under pressure, City Hall on the move and WeWork slashes fees

On this week’s episode of EG’s We’re Still Here podcast, host Emily Wright is joined by residential reporter Emma Rosser and tech and global reporter Lucy Alderson after a week of colossal news stories, ongoing sagas and rising temperatures. Emma kicks off with an update on the ongoing Westferry Printworks scheme story following the release of texts and e-mails that suggest housing secretary Robert Jenrick started pressing for approval on the £1bn scheme the day after he met with Tory donor Richard Desmond. Papers released by the government – comprising communication between Jenrick, his department, Desmond and representatives of the media tycoon’s development firm Northern & Shell – indicated that Jenrick was “insistent” that a decision was reached before the scheme’s viability was “impacted by a change in the London CIL regime”. Emma also discusses the news that the GLA is consulting on plans to exit City Hall and relocate to the Royal Docks in a bid to cut costs during unprecedented financial pressure as a result of Covid-19. Then it’s on to WeWork and Lucy’s story in which the co-working giant plans to slash new membership costs by up to 75% and considers what this means for WeWork specifically and the wider flexible office space more generally. All this, plus keeping cool in the hot weather and Lucy’s plans to invest in a paddling pool on this week’s episode of We’re Still Here. To send feedback, e-mail emily.wright@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmilyW_9 or @estatesgazette