A Budget for business? Oh no it isn’t

EDITOR’S COMMENT More devolution (to Surrey!), more levelling up funding (to Canary Wharf!), investment into life sciences, tax breaks for the film industry to help boost the booming studio sector in the UK, oh my! That was the abridged version of the Budget on Wednesday. The theatre that is the House of Commons was in full force this week as the “they don’t have a plan, so here’s ours” pantomime played out. I’ve chaired enough panels on levelling up over the past four years to know that it’s not just the North that suffers from deprivation and that London needs a little bit of love too. But Canary Wharf getting a share of £240m of government funding? Huh? I’ll be the first in line to champion investment into real estate for the benefit of the wider UK economy and will loudly shout that our developers and placemakers need some love if they are really to be utilised for the full potential of our country and survival of our planet. But does Canary Wharf really need government funding? The vast majority of the estate is owned by Brookfield, which earlier this month reported annual earnings of $5.1bn for 2023. Those results showed that it had some $490bn of assets in its portfolio. We all know that Canary Wharf is undergoing a transformation and that the big office towers that make up its skyline need some serious repurposing, and that life sciences and residential will be its saviour. But I’m pretty sure that’s for the landlord, with its big private equity backer, to deal with. Had Jeremy Hunt said funding was going to Tower Hamlets, well that would be a completely different story. And look, I’m not bashing Canary Wharf Group here. I actually quite like them all and think that they are working hard on the portfolio and doing – or at least trying to do – good things with the communities around the estate that really do need some levelling up assistance. But the announcement in the Budget felt a bit like our politicians grabbing onto the shiny, sexy bit of real estate instead of the gritty, purposeful bit of it. And then devolving powers to Surrey? I did hear that correctly, didn’t I? Again, devolution is great. I’m a big fan of that. Putting power in the hands of people who want to make meaningful change, who understand their communities and the issues they face and have a better idea of how to fix those issues, is a very good and sensible thing. But shouldn’t we start where the biggest issues are first? When was the last time you heard about struggling Surrey? Pretty sure Surrey doesn’t have to fight too hard to get the ear of our Conservative leadership. Mainly though, it seems the Budget was an opportunity for blue and red to fight each other. The school-yard fighting ahead of the big battle that is set to come our way at some point this year. What it really means for real estate, like always, is relatively little. Much of it, to me at least, felt familiar, with old promises refreshed. Some big numbers were thrown around, but until we get a chance to dig through the details of all the Budget documents, no real indication as to whether those are new numbers or recycled. That means it is business as usual for real estate. Forget the politics, control the controllables and keep pushing ahead on delivering for people, planet and UK plc. See also: BUDGET 2024 Key takeaways for real estateIndustry reaction: Real estate finds little to cheer in Budget Talking of business as usual for real estate, the annual pilgrimage to MIPIM is upon us and EG will be down in Cannes again en masse. The news team will be busy running up and down the Croissette making sure that all the news, views and gossip gets shared, and our sales and partnership teams will be on hand making sure that everyone knows about and has access to our full suite of solutions. And we’ll host a debate and party or two, of course. Find out more about what we’re up to and who’s there at www.eg.co.uk/eg-events/mipim2024