Suffolk is showing its resilience to the gathering economic storm clouds thanks in large part to the influence of Britain’s busiest container port, Felixstowe, which is boosting activity levels across the logistics and warehousing sector, according to Penn Commercial founder and managing director Vanessa Penn. Penn Commercial, located in Ipswich, transacted the most space in Suffolk in 2022 and currently sits in second place in the 2023 On Demand Rankings for Suffolk, with 44,205 sq ft transacted across 14 deals. According to Penn, logistics and non-food retail warehousing are performing strongly this year, although activity levels in high street retail and offices has slowed, while most speculative development has been put on hold until costs come down. She believes the key thing for agents in the current climate is to keep the short to medium term churn of deals going and not get bogged down in longer term projects where planning can be time consuming.

Jess Harrold is joined by news editor Pui-Guan Man and offices reporter Chanté Bohitige for the latest weekly round-up. Bohitige shares important insights on diversity and inclusion from Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad, speaking at the Real Estate Balance annual conference, and Man rounds up the week's news, including LondonMetric's confidence in the urban logistics sector. But, still in mourning over the end of the acclaimed TV series Succession, how will Man fare when she is put to the test on the real estate featured in the show (fear not, there are no plot spoilers for the finale)? And what classic track will Bohitige add to the EGLSM Certified Bangers playlist? https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pBand693O5IhhaScVM6uZ       , you've done it again! And Pui, it has to be you this week. Any chance we could record an EGLSM tomorrow afternoon to chat D&I, urban logistics and post-grieving the end of a certain TV show?

Time is fast running out for the UK to meet its target to reach net zero by 2050 and nowhere is this more apparent than in the public sector. Local authorities across the UK own millions of sq ft of assets that need to be brought up to standard. Never before has it been more vital for public and private sectors to work together to create communities where people and business can thrive. In this EG Property Podcast, recorded live as part of a breakfast briefing session at UKREiiF in Leeds in May, EG gathered key players from both the public and private sector to understand more about the scale of the challenge and the opportunities that true partnership could deliver. Expert commentary comes from: Ramona Jones, deputy director, Office for Investment Shravan Joshi MBE, chairman planning & transportation, City of London Corporation Jackie Sadek, director, Urban Strategy Andrew Wallis, partner, Clyde & Co Jonathan Wilson, managing director, Citu

Jess Harrold is joined by Imogen Dodds, of Falcon Chambers, to discuss the Renters (Reform) Bill recently introduced to parliament – legislation intended to deliver the government's long-standing promise to abolish so-called "no-fault" section 21 evictions. Dodds explains the political background to the Bill, offers a comprehensive outline of the proposals contained in the current draft and details the practical implications for landlords and tenants – including increased security of tenure for the latter and new grounds for seeking possession that will become available to the former. In addition, Dodds appraises how well the Bill as drafted addresses the issues facing the residential sector and balances the competing interests of landlords and tenants, and offers thoughts on how smooth its passage through parliament may be.

A place of “ambition and progressive thinking,” is how Sheona Southern, managing director of Marketing Manchester, describes her city. She points to “trailblazers and change makers” including Alan Turing, L.S. Lowry and Emmeline Pankhurst. Now she’s thinking about how the city – which her agency promotes nationally and internationally – can position itself for its next phase of growth. In this podcast recorded at the UKREiiF conference in Leeds, Southern tells EG deputy editor Tim Burke about the factors and influences shaping Manchester’s pitch to investors – and the role that the real estate industry has to play in that.

The concept of 15-minute cities has gained traction in places as diverse as Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Melbourne. Advocates say this approach can create long-term economic growth for urban centres but critics fear it would widen inequalities in communities. So what could this concept mean for the UK in terms of fairness, equality and levelling up? How can the UK embrace repurposing and retrofitting yet retain the historic and uniqueness of places? Listen in to this panel discussion, hosted in partnership with Landsec and recorded live at UKREiiF in Leeds, to hear what more can be done to increase collaboration between the public and private sectors to connect spaces to people, and establish healthier and happier places to live.   Expert commentary comes from: Jennifer Daothong, acting chief executive, Lewisham Council Mike Hood, chief executive, U+I, a Landsec company Andreas Markides, vice-chair, the Academy of Urbanism Michelle Sacks, deputy chief executive (growth), South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership

What once might have been a nice-to-have in terms of a real estate project’s environmental impact will soon be a must-have. From November, any commercial development will be subject to a planning condition requiring developers to show how they can increase biodiversity onsite by at least 10%. It marks the first time such a requirement will be statutory rather than voluntary. At UKREiiF, EG deputy editor Tim Burke sat down with Alexa Culver, general counsel at Environment Bank, and Ben Stansfield, partner at Gowling WLG, to discuss the new biodiversity net gain regulation, the challenges developers will face in factoring the new requirements into their planning proposals, and how an initiative from Environment Bank could give developers – and landowners – a new opportunity.

As Birmingham’s leaders map out a path for transforming the city, one project looks set to set the tone in terms of scale and ambition. The 42-acre, £1.9bn Smithfield project will eventually have 3,000 homes, 1.7m sq ft of commercial space and 40,000 sq ft of space for commercial use. Some 1,000 trees will green the city centre site, a new home for historic markets will be built and a new plaza, Festival Square, will be able to hold 8,000 people. In this podcast recorded at UKREiiF, EG deputy editor Tim Burke ios joined by Deborah Cadman, chief executive of Birmingham City Council, and Neil Martin, chief executive for Europe at Lendlease, to discuss the ways in which they want the project to become an impossible-to-ignore illustration of public and private partnership in action in Birmingham.

Lendlease’s Silvertown Partnership, a joint venture with Starwood Capital, has lodged plans for a sprawling £3.5bn scheme at Silvertown in London's Royal Docks that will include some 6,000 homes as well a redevelopment of the Millennium Mills into a new community centrepiece with more than 780,000 sq ft of work and creative space. In this podcast, recorded at the UKREiiF conference, EG deputy editor Tim Burke is joined by Bek Seeley, managing director for development at Lendlease Europe, and Dan Bridge, Royal Docks programme director at the Greater London Authority, to discuss the scheme. “Silvertown is, in our world, the opportunity to bring forwards the east of London, here and now,” Seeley says. “It's not often when you're doing a really large-scale regeneration project that you are gifted such history and such evolution."

Jess Harrold is joined by Chanté Bohitige and Akanksha Soni for the latest weekly round-up. Bohitige tackles the news that office refurbishments in London are at an all-time high - but what does the demand for prime, modern, environmentally friendly offices mean for values of secondary and tertiary space? Soni rounds up bumper activity in the PBSA and BTR arenas, and shares her experiences at UKREiiF in Leeds. But who will triumph as the quiz of the week returns? And what track will DJ Chanté add for your bank holiday listening pleasure to the EGLSM Certified Bangers playlist?: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pBand693O5IhhaScVM6uZ