November 2010 Archives

Are your clients taking their time in settling your invoices? Well then, developers and agents alike may want to take a look at Experian's Late Payment Survey. The Nottingham-based information services company has just released Q3 figures and landlords may want a copy to hand when considering tenants for their buildings.

Most saintly in the survey are companies in the 'agriculture, fisheries and forestry' sector, who tend to settle up 10 days late. Not an area of huge occupational demand, it has to be said. More relevant, especially for those with an interest in retail property, is that 'spirits, wine & tobacco' and 'pharmaceuticals' companies are better payers (15-17 days late) as are IT firms (18 days late). Sinners - and ones to definitely avoid - are businesses in the postal and telecoms sector, who take nearly 40 days beyond agreed payment terms to hand over what they owe.

Where companies are based also seems to have a bearing on how quickly they will pay up: look out for firms from the South West and the South East (17 and 18 days late, respectively) and give a wide berth to those from London and the North West (26 and 27 days late, respectively). Within the Midlands go for a business based in the East - they'll pay up 3 days faster than similar firms in the West (22 vs 25 days, respectively).

But above all - and here's the rub - avoid dealing with your peers. Property-related companies rank close to the the bottom of the list, taking over a month beyond agreed terms to settle their bills. You have been warned!

Pic courtesy of Spirit-Fire via Flickr.com

Business Birmingham, the newly created offshoot of Marketing Birmingham dedicated to targeting inward investors, recently announced that its aim is to attract 6,700 new jobs to the city in the next five years. Under the guidance of newly appointed investment director Wouter Schuitmakker, (who is due to start in early 2011) a team of specialists will be recruited to turn around Birmingham's historically poor inward investment record.

My completely non-scientific calculations suggest that if this many jobs are indeed created this will create occupational demand for up to 700,000 sq ft - or around 140,000 sq ft per year - of office space, which isn't mindblowing, but neither is it something to be sniffed at. These calculations don't include the indirect demand part of the equation that could benefit retailers and other businesses.

So - big question - are these job targets realistic or just another headline-grabbing ruse? I asked Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham. He, perhaps unsurprisingly, says the numbers are achievable. And you don't have to take his word for it. The figures are based on research carried out earlier this year by global location specialist IBM-PLI.

OK, we'll go with the 6,700 jobs. So where exactly are they going to come from? Rami says: "My number one priority is targeting the financial services sector. Around 23% of Birmingham's working population is already in this sector, which equates to 100,000 employees. We already have a strength here with Deutsche Bank's relocation to Birmingham so we can prove that we can take companies in and grow them. We want to grow this sector and also exploit new opportunities in the banking sector."

"We are also focussing on the human resources and legal services sectors, emerging opportunities such as clinical trials, digital and media sectors as well as the green automotive market. The growth in the green automotive sector has been phenomenal we already have a good supply base here but we want to attract more."

Now before you office agents rush off to dust down your lettings brochures, you may have to prepare for a bit more leg work, as Business Birmingham won't be doing all the hard graft for you. Rami explains: "This is new thinking for Birmingham. We need the private sector to take a more active role in attracting inward investment into the city. Yes, we're in the midst of the biggest public sector cuts since the war, but it only takes one or two big property inward investments to make a real difference."

Time to roll up those sleeves everybody

Sleeve photo courtesy of Brykmantra via Flickr.com

Office pic courtesy of UGG Boy UGG Girl also via Flickr.com

Last week I reported on the tie-up between Birmingham City Council and its equivalent in the United Arab Emirates, the municipal government of Abu Dhabi. Privately, business professionals are quietly amused that the city which has spent years digging itself out of a rather messy hole it created fifty-odd years ago is now holding up the Big City Plan as an exemplar for integrated urban development to others. Publicly, though, they focus on the very welcome prospect of investor interest, from whatever quarter and however remote.

Finally the government has decided which Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) will take on the challenge of economic and physical regeneration in the regions. Out of 56 proposed LEPs, less than half got the go-ahead last Thursday. On paper the Midlands has done rather well: nine out of twelve (ie 75%) partnerships across the region were approved.

But what concerns property people is whether the new bodies are going to be able to act cohesively. Underneath the brave faces is a real fear that for many of the local authorities taking over the RDA roles it will be 'business as usual', promoting very local areas rather than providing the joined-up strategic outlook that wins inward investment.

Charlie Toogood, director of GVA Grimley, shares these concerns, he adds: "What's also inevitable is the two year vacuum of transition when nothing will actually happen because the whole process will be bound up in red tape and bureaucracy."