Phew for RIFW. That's the Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales, known as RIFW by the Welsh Assembly Government and Jessica to anyone in the EU - are you all still following? It just might get a few regeneration projects off the ground.As the rest of Europe ponders what to do with with Jessica (or the Joint European Support for the Sustainable Investment in City Areas), Wales have decided to lead the way, giving her a name change, a fresh coat of lipstick and launching RIFW. It will be jangling its wares at Mipim next week and WAG will appoint fund and investment managers to the initative this summer.
The business community seem to have welcomed it and King Sturge's South Wales property report, released today (and covered in full in the continue reading link), makes a point of highlighting it and the refreshed political scene in Wales.
But wasn't Wales trying to move away from that grant culture? In fact King Sturge's report makes a point of saying how the business community has welcomed in the selection of Carwyn Jones as first minister, applauded for his "business friendly focus"and "pragmatic approach to supporting big business and the gradual transition away from a grants culture".
That will be even more important after what King Sturge calls a "tough but interesting year ahead with a price to be paid for the years of excess".
The
report says the public sector in Wales has so far offered a buffer to
the recession. It forecasts
that public sector employment in Wales is likely to fall
anywhere between 1-3% over the next year or two with 2011 likely to be
worse than 2010. Aggressive cuts in public spending are expected and
will hit project delivery and employment numbers. The region has
already seen the cancelling of the £1bn M4 newport relief road promised
back in 2004. This may force future enquiries to reconsider it says,
although everyone is hoping the relocation of Tesco's chilled foods
division to Avonmouth is a one off.
Phase 1 of RIFW is the establishment of a fund consisting of £25m European Structural Funds and £30m of Assembly property assets and funds. Phase 2 will be to raise private sector investment of a similar amount.
Yes the money's going to be really welcome and really important at the moment but do they really want even more reliance on the public purse?
For the year end 2009 King Sturge says:
Picture by Alex Castella, used courtesy of Flickr's creative commons
Phase 1 of RIFW is the establishment of a fund consisting of £25m European Structural Funds and £30m of Assembly property assets and funds. Phase 2 will be to raise private sector investment of a similar amount.
Yes the money's going to be really welcome and really important at the moment but do they really want even more reliance on the public purse?
For the year end 2009 King Sturge says:
- Investment: first two quarters of the 2009 represented the bottom of the investement market's current cycle. Industrial showed the greatest outward movement in yields
- Industrial: was its quietest for 15 years, with availability up 10.7% (at 16m sq ft) with large units over 100, 000 sq ft representing 42% of that. Occupiers have focused on the M4 corridor between Newport and Bridgend. Spec development is still out for the foreseeable future. Property companies are very quiet - a sector that was heavily relied up to acquire, relet, sublet, or redevelop.
- Retail:The number of units trading at St David's 2 opening was disappointing - but those that were open were high quality. the schemes is starting to fill out and by the end of the year it should look busier. Swansea's £1bn regeneration has seen little progress after Urban Splash pulled out as partner with Hammerson, and the retail is likely to contain 20% less than the 600, 000 sq ft initially promised.In Newport there remain extensive vacancies at the Kingsway Shopping centre. However this is the only one, of three promised retail led redevelopments that has got off the ground in Newport.
Newport saw take up drop 40% and availability go up 30% - the city has been hit heavily by the Godfrey road station development and City spires being put on hold.- Offices: Incentives have doubled in South Wales which has heavily impacted net effective rents.
In Cardiff, availability increased significantly peaking at 1.4m sq ft but managed to fall back to 1.25m sq ft in q4 or 10% of total stock. Grade A availaiblity remains liited at 6 months supply. Take up for the first six months was down 50%; but recovered in the latter part of the year so it was down 25% on the long term average.
Picture by Alex Castella, used courtesy of Flickr's creative commons
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