Estates Gazette Property Podcasts

Bricks & Mortar: How to interpret a judgment

This week’s episode of Bricks & Mortar sees Sarah Jackman joined in the EG studio by her colleague on the legal & professional desk: Jess Harrold. Amongst his many skills, Jess is a seasoned court reporter, having spent numerous years covering the courts for both the EG and other news organisations.

He lifts the lid on how best to approach a judgment, where its key information is contained and how, with a bit of practice, you can make light work of getting to grips with a lengthy report. Jess guides listeners through the process by making reference to a case currently under appeal: Fearn v The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2019] EWHC 246 (Ch). To reference it while listening, download a copy at: https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2019/246.html&query=(title:(+fearn+))

"This feels like a mental health emergency"

When EG revealed last November that more than a quarter of real estate professionals had considered taking their own life, the industry was stunned. But not into silence. Stunned and then prompted into taking action, into speaking up, into embracing the fact that it is OK to not be OK sometimes.

Mental health charity Mind head of workplace wellbeing programmes Faye McGuinness, JLL head of investor facilities management Neil Worrall, and Fisher German managing partner Andrew Bridge joins EG reporter Lucy Alderson to discuss what the immediate next steps property needs to take to start to lower these shocking statistics. 

Finance Talks: Geared up for a Boris bounce?

December’s general election gave the property market a much-needed injection of optimism. If the 'Boris bounce' does indeed continue, what kinds of deals and developments will keep financiers busiest, and what trends are likely to dominate in 2020?

In this Finance Talks podcast, EG deputy editor Tim Burke is joined by John Carter, commercial director in the real estate division at Aldermore Bank, and Nicole Lux, senior research fellow at Cass Business School, to discuss the outlook.

Law and Borders: How the approach to energy efficiency differs in Scotland

Ann Stewart – a senior professional support lawyer at Shepherd & Wedderburn LLP – discusses the differences in energy efficiency provisions between England and Wales on the one hand, and Scotland on the other.

Stewart compares and contrasts the two regimes, under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 north of the border, and the Energy Act 2011 and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards in England and Wales, covering how each operates, key exemptions, and major deadlines in the calendar in each jurisdiction.

 

The three Ps of making property work

At Knight Frank’s annual London breakfast briefing, the need for real estate to continue to shift the dial when it comes to customer service was made abundantly clear.

Buildings without occupiers are valueless and occupiers - and their employees - are becoming increasingly discerning and demanding when it comes to space requirements. Office space is now much more than just a cost to occupiers, it can be the difference between winning and losing commercial.

In this podcast we talk to global head of occupier research at Knight Frank Lee Elliott about what landlords need to understand about their customers to have “property with purpose, property that performs and ultimately property that prevails”.

Law & Borders: Ashurst goes global with real estate dispute resolution team

 

International law firm Ashurst has announced the next evolution of the firm's global real estate dispute resolution practice as part of an initiative to assist clients navigate the risks and liabilities of regional and multi-jurisdictional real estate investment.

 The initiative focuses on providing clients with an integrated approach to commercial real estate disputes, derived from the firm's broad expertise in managing high-value, large and complex disputes, combined with extensive industry understanding to provide clients seamless real estate solutions from across Ashurst's network of international offices.

Alison Hardy, Ashurt’s head of real estate dispute resolution, said: "Over the past few years, real estate has become an increasingly global asset, and as such we are seeing increasing globalisation in real estate disputes work. International disputes are often complex – both legally and sometimes culturally, involving fusion of laws and, not infrequently, politics, and having a global real estate disputes group will allow us to offer a seamless service to our clients.

“By working together as one global team, we are able to pool resources, so that if clients need advice in a particular jurisdiction, we will have specialists in that location, and the global team to handle any size dispute."

Hardy joins EG's Jess Harrold in the Studio to further discuss the move, and how the global approach will benefit clients.

 

 

 

Bricks & Mortar: The importance of presentation skills

The need for strong presentation skills isn't just confined to formal presentations, but to a range of scenarios. Telephone calls, emails and internal meetings, for example, all require them in order to make a positive and lasting impression.

Its important to hone these skills early in your career, according to Alice Dockar - a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills who is also the firm's training principal. She talks to Sarah Jackman about the need to prepare, to know how to sell yourself and to build internal and external networks. 

Making the most of marginal gains

When it comes to going green or fulfilling net zero carbon targets, throwing up a new building – planning and financing aside – is a relatively easy route. But what about the 80% of our built environment that already exists?

If the nation is really to achieve its target of net zero by 2050 – or before if it is really serious about tackling climate change – what are we going to do  with our existing building stock?

In this latest EG Property Podcast  looking into numerous issues around sustainability and climate change, EG editor Samantha McClary speaks to a selection of industry specialists to discuss the issues and opportunities around retrofitting.

Listen in to here expert insight and advice from:

Sarah Ratcliffe, chief executive of the Better Buildings Partnership
Chris Bennett, managing director of EVORA Global
Brian Bickell, chief executive of Shaftesbury
Karen Jamison, head of sustainability at Workspace Group
James Ford, partner at engineer Hoare Lea

Bricks & Mortar: Colliers' HR director on its graduate and apprenticeship programmes

Colliers' 2020 graduate recruitment process sees non-cognate applicants included for the first time, in a move that it hopes will broaden its talent pool and help to increase diversity in the sector. 

To discuss the change, Sarah Jackman is joined by Colliers HR director Lydia Ings, who reflects on the firm's efforts to raise awareness of property as a career amongst school pupils and non-cognate graduates and what the expectations are for those applying to any of their schemes, as well as providing advice on how applicants – cognate or otherwise – can set themselves apart.

 

 

Bricks & Mortar: From architecture to party wall surveying: Shirley Waldron reflects on her career

Shirley Waldron, surveyor at Delva Patman Redler LLP started her career as an architect, before developing a career in party wall surveying. In this latest episode of Bricks & Mortar, she reflects on how she made the change and her career highlight to date: acting as party wall surveyor for the Crossrail project. 

She tells Sarah Jackman what it's like to work on a major infrastructure project, what she learned during that time and how there is huge satisfaction to be derived from completing a qualification. She urges "anyone who is thinking of getting into the construction industry to learn a discipline and see it through ... so that you can hold your head up with your peers."