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Thanks a bunch Steve!

"Jenny Steen, sales director at Irish property developer Ballymore – which has several London projects – said she has noted increased Middle Eastern buyer interest in non-traditional areas such as West London’s The Brentford Project." – Arabian Business."Close to Heathrow airport and next to prestigious areas like Chiswick and Kew, Brentford offers people the chance to buy into great growth opportunities,” she said. “It’s an unusual place that is home to natural spaces, as well as proximity to great schools and employment opportunities at a lower price point. Middle Eastern buyers are looking at opportunities for growth in West London, which still have parks, green spaces and access to water in an appealing price bracket,” she said. “The Brentford Project appeals to owner-occupiers who would also like to rent out if they decide to.”MULTIPLE PURCHASES. Arabian Business also reported: "According to Barratt London (which is developing Hounslow Town Centre) 12 multiple property purchases were transacted in the last six months from Middle Eastern family offices, compared with one in the 12 months before. Between six and 10 apartments is the average number per transaction with purchasers. While typical purchase values are between £460,000 and £600,000."The property firm has seen a move towards Gulf investors purchasing more affordable outer London homes, which offer rental yields of around four percent – higher than central London at 3.6 percent."https://www.arabianbusiness.com/.../469671-why-gulf...

Vanessa Smith ● 777d11 Comments

DAVID v GOLIATH BATTLE: IT LOOKS BAD TIMING FOR CLLR CURRAN WITH 5 MAY COUNCIL ELECTIONS. WHAT IMPACT AT THE BALLOT BOX? The Public Inquiry into the Tesco-Homebase development at Osterley/Brentford kicks off on 15 March. With the support of Leader Cllr Steve Curran, the Council has authorised spending £200,000 on lawyers to "robustly defend" the go-ahead. The developers – Berkeley Homes/St Edward – will no doubt deploy equally expensive lawyers. Together their legal team will dwarf the resources of local opponents such as OWGRA. Despite that, it will be a fierce battle and David could well deliver Goliath a knock-out blow.Other opponents will include Historic England, Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew), and The Gardens Trust. A large part will be concerned with the impacts on heritage assets - Kew Gardens, Syon Park, Osterley Park and, to a lesser extent, listed buildings such as the Gillette building. The inquiry which will be webcast live from Hounslow House.It will also be a battle over to Steve Curran's vision of development in the Borough and, depending on the evidence, that could well be reflected at the ballot box on 5 May. While the Tories are expected to benefit overall in the area, there will be sympathy for the three Labour councillors who joined the opposition – Tony Louki, Richard Eason and Unsa Chaudri.In justifying its legal expenditure, the Council says: "We don’t have the resources or capacity to deliver that defence alongside delivering the other corporate priorities so need to add this additional budget to fund appropriate external support to robustly defend the decisions."A number of options were considered but with limited resources currently available relevant teams do not have the ability to robustly defend the decision."Earlier this month Cllr Curran defended his acceptance of hospitality from developers, including Berkeley. It was all fully and properly declared (although without giving a value). The Council website shows:* Dinner/Entertainment-11th October 2018 - The Berkeley Foundation Celebration at the British Museum.* Ticket to England v New Zealand Hospitality and match ticket Twickenham Stadium- 10th November 2018- Adrian Hunter Berkeley Strategic Land Ltd.* Hospitality and Match tickets x 2 at Lords - Test Match 14th August 2019 (England v Australia)- Berkeley Group.He told the Isleworth & Brentford Forum: “It’s incumbent on me as Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Planning and Regeneration to promote the Council wherever I can.“There's an enormous amount of development and that's really important.“People want to come and live in Brentford, to work in Brentford, to stay in Brentford. They want to bring up their children in Brentford and for them to be educated here – all our schools are good or outstanding. We were voted Council of the Year.“We've got a very clear agenda about sustainable jobs, sustainable homes, being carbon neutral by 2030, so I go anywhere and meet anyone at any time to ensure we meet our targets to build more family homes.“I make no excuses about making sure against stiff competition from other boroughs in London who are all banging the drum to get multi-million pound investment.“I am absolutely comfortable with the way this council manages its affairs around planning and regeneration.”

Vanessa Smith ● 766d

When Council Leader Steve Curran defended himself over hospitality on Thursday, not one of his fellow councillors present said a word on the matter, one way or the other. Time was running short, certainly. But it would only have taken a moment to declare: "I agree with Steve." Nobody did. Silence. They moved on.While Cllr Curran said he felt "comfortable" with it, some Borough councillors are distinctly "uncomfortable" that property developers and suchlike provide tickets and associated amenities at Lord's and Twickenham and pay for flights and hotels. Yes, personal relationships probably come with the job of overseeing Planning and Regeneration in the Borough. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing or breach of the Code of Conduct but where would Cllr Curran draw the line? Is it literally the Martini defence: "Any time, any place, anywhere"?What if a developer wished to show him new projects in, say, Sydney or San Francisco or Tokyo – would it be acceptable to fly to such destinations, perhaps first-class or by private jet, with hotels and the likely wining and dining? The trip might be informative. If declared, it would not breach the Code of Conduct. But would it be a good idea?It is hard to imagine Cllr Katherine Dunne swapping her Brompton bike for such a freebie, or almost any non-essential freebie. Ditto with some others present at the Isleworth & Brentford Forum, and with other members in the broader Labour Group across the Borough. Cllr Tony Louki has made his position clear, telling the Homebase/Tesco developer Berkeley in 2020: "You think this is a done deal just because you speak to Cllr Curran…You've gone ahead with what you've discussed down in Cannes or wherever else you do your deals round the back with. I'm not saying you've done the deal particularly anything nefarious but the discussions prior to come to this…”Accepting hospitality is a controversial area for any politician. Cllr Curran still does not state the value of the hospitality he's received, unlike others. To some, it isn't just about strict adherence to the Code of Conduct. It's about appearance, whether it mirrors the mood of voters especially when the Council is repeatedly promoting its war against poverty and unemployment in the area.This has not gone away. It will be remain an issue especially when Cllr Curran stands for the Leadership again in May, as he is expected to do. With the elections over, his colleagues will be able to say what they really think.Scroll for linked stories.Fair comment welcome. If you post defamatory comments, you must take personal responsibility for any consequences.

Vanessa Smith ● 775d

But there's a key difference Eric between someone working for a company being 'entertained' by someone wanting some kind of business deal and someone who is part of the public sector, be they a Councillor or Officer.And it's not about whether decisions are being made on the basis of hospitality or not, it's a question of perception.As someone who has worked in the planning business for almost 24 years now, both for Councils, housebuilders, consultancies and for myself, I despise the whole lobbying concept.  I take with a pinch of salt the claims of these lobbying firms about achieving great things for their clients, and it always reminds me of working on a Barratts scheme over 10 years ago when an hour before the planning committee meeting (not LBH) the guy from the lobbying firm told us that the Lib Dems votes were in the bag...and at the planning committee the application was unanimously refused, which was kind of comical.But just the concept is something I'm distinctly uneasy with, it's something I'd never encourage and I've never found to be necessary, if you've got a decent scheme you'll get permission either through the Council or on appeal.  My biggest client is Yum Foods and many of their franchisees so one of the biggest fast food companies in the world, I get permission for their developments all over the UK and given the nature of their business inevitably many of their applications attract hundreds of objections, but neither they nor I have ever entertained the notion of employing lobbying firms or such like, we just stick to presenting robust planning arguments.

Adam Beamish ● 776d

In my salary-man days I once got lavishly entertained in Brussels by a shady EU contractor who wanted a licence for our electronic data interchange software. I enjoyed the evening but when I got back to the office I wrote a report saying "don't even think of dealing with this guy". My wife's brother bought huge volumes of cheeses, hams etc for retail groups and accepted all sorts of sports final freebies and said "I accept it all - but never change my mind about what to order".There are many councils across the country that have been devastated by the fierce austerity assault on their finances. Some have made property bets and lost, others have closed libraries and let things rot. None can pay enough to care homes or do as much as they would like for people who need help. So what LBH are doing has at least kept the money flowing in - and I doubt there are many properties successfully evading council tax - if they persisted they could lose the properties. I'm sure I've seen reasonably impressive figures on council tax arrears and the rich absentee owners probably have it on direct debit. If anyone has any evidence of decisions being taken on the basis of hospitality received I'd love to know. But I see nothing wrong in accepting hospitality. It's the way a lot of things work. And our council is not closing libraries or selling off parks. What I am concerned with is that with huge additions to the housing stock we do not seem to be getting more (or enough) open spaces, GPs, schools, youth clubs (remember those?) etc. We do need more homes but we also need pleasant surroundings with facilities that work for people. Currently there is an intolerable load on the voluntary sector to help keep things sort of working.

Eric Baker ● 776d

From Brentford TV Debate not Hate:COUNCIL LEADER DEFENDS ACCEPTING HOSPITALITY. "I'm glad that (Brentford Today & TV) has acknowledged that there is no breach of the rules and the Code of Conduct has been followed." – Cllr Steve Curran at last night's Isleworth & Brentford Forum. He was responding to whether it was a good idea for him to accept hospitality from property developers and others in the Borough, including at Lord's cricket ground and Twickenham, and whether such meetings would be better if held in more formal settings. Although the question was posed to all the Councillors present, only Cllr Curran replied. The others remained silent on the matter – Cllrs Tony Louki (chair), Mel Collins, Corinna Smart, Sue Sampson, Daanish Saeed, Katherine Dunne, Richard Eason, Guy Lambert and Salman Shaheen.Cllr Curran said: "It's incumbent of me as Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Planning and Regeneration to promote the Council wherever I can."That was done in 2010 under the leadership of Jagdish Sharma and we've had a very ambitious house building programme since then and that continues today. It's not just Brentford, it's Feltham, Chiswick, Hounslow town centre. There's an enormous amount of development going on and that's really important. We are a destination borough now. We've moved from ten years ago when we were a borough people just drove through or flew over to a borough where people want to live and work, demonstrated by the amount of investment we've attracted since 2010."That's really important. People want to come and live in Brentford, to work in Brentford, to stay in Brentford, they want to bring up their children in Brentford and for them to be educated here – we just announced this week that all of our schools are good or outstanding. We were voted Council of the Year."We're a borough that steps forward and we're backed, we've got a very clear agenda about sustainable jobs, sustainable homes, being carbon neutral by 2030, so I go anywhere and meet anyone at any time to ensure we meet our targets to build more family homes."Last week in Feltham I had the privilege of meeting two care leavers who had just moved into their first flats, and a single mum with her child, and it was humbling to see how grateful they were to the council. The single mum said she cried when she got taken round that home."I make no excuses about making sure against stiff competition from other boroughs in London who are all banging the drum to get multi-million pound investment so they are sustainable for the future. I am absolutely comfortable with the way this council manages its affairs around planning and regeneration."Fair comment welcome. Defamatory comment is made at your own risk.

Vanessa Smith ● 776d