Chapman Client Announces Merger

Last week saw our client, Corporate Property Advisers, join forces with EC Harris, the leading global built asset consultancy.

Over the past couple of years we've been working very closely with CPA, providing them with a full strategy marketing service. This has included a full branding exercise covering both their internal and external comms, the implementation and management of a conference programme and the provision of strategic design services. We're very excited about the news and believe it will open up a wealth of new opportunities for CPA.

Stepping out at Woolston Manor for Lennox Children's Cancer Charity

Nichola Crawshaw, Sarah Chapman and guests at the Woolston Manor Country Club


 

March 22nd saw guests stepping out in style at the Woolston Manor Country Club, Chingford, to raise funds for the Lennox Children's Cancer Charity. Chapman Consulting organised the evening on behalf of their client, Woodford Heating. Speaking afterwards, Sarah Chapman said, "The evening raised over £10,000 for the charity, which is just fantastic."

Budget Focus

Clients and friends of Chapman Consulting might be interested to read our 2014 Budget Commentary. If you would like more information about the impact of the Chancellor's proposals on the property sector please do get in touch and we're happy to share our views in more detail. Our full report can be downloaded here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-4I2spFrao_NzVncXpNeGtIY0E/edit?usp=sharing

Another Year, Another Budget

I have to say, I’ve been distinctly underwhelmed by this year’s budget insofar as it relates to business generally and our sector in particular. Yes, it was a positive budget for the house-builders. The announcement of a £500m funding package aimed at smaller developers is good news; despite the upturn in the housing market, they are still finding it hard to access funding from the major lenders. Similarly, confirmation that the Help to Buy Scheme is to be extended out to 2020 will help maintain momentum in the market. 

Elsewhere though, help was pretty thin on the ground. £340m to repair potholes and flood defences ravaged by the winter storms amounts to little more than a sticking plaster solution. And where was the help for SMEs in this Budget? 

Clearly Osborne delivered this year’s Spring Statement with an eye to next year’s election. Older voters, not smaller business were his target on Tuesday.

Look out for our budget analysis next week. 

Garden Cities to Make a Comeback

Letchworth - The UK's First Garden City

 Tomorrow is Budget Day and, as usual, the weekend press devoted many column inches to pre-budget speculation. With only 15 months to go until the next General Election, George Osborne’s Budget strategy is, unsurprisingly, the subject of intense scrutiny. 

Two announcements really caught my eye: Osborne’s pledge to extend the equity loan element of the Help to Buy Scheme and his commitment to develop a new Garden City at Ebbsfleet in Kent.

Both initiatives are aimed squarely at the housing developers. The first part of Help to Buy, the equity loan scheme, is available only to buyers of new builds. By placing a further £6bn into that  element of the programme and extending its life out to 2020 Osborne is hoping to boost the development of 120,000 new homes 

A further investment of £200m at Ebbsfleet, located on the high speed rail line out to Ashford, is intended to provide up to 15,000 new homes. The first such initiative in almost 100 years, the scheme will redevelop existing brownfield sites and is intended to provide affordable housing for the South-East.

MIPIM in Full Swing

The twenty-fifth MIPIM is in full swing down at Cannes. We’ve had some really successful meetings, particularly on behalf of our client, Phi Lighting, who are design-led lighting specialists. It’s been very interesting to feel the pulse of the market. The mood this year has certainly seemed far more optimistic than we’ve seen in recent years.

Boris Johnson was full of his usual joie de vivre as he highlighted the positive spinoffs that overseas investment has brought to the capital. However, he was still keen to stress the need for more affordable housing. Michael Newey of RICS held the view that we need to learn how to adapt existing buildings.

As ever, the trends coming out of MIPIM are thought provoking and from our perspective, it’s invaluable to assimilate the views of the sector’s thought leaders.

Brilliant Boules

Mark and Sarah Chapman, aka The Green Berets getting into the swing of Cannes

Chapman Consulting having a break from their schedule to take part in the MIPIM Boules match. The Green Berets faced some stiff opposition, including Ashfords LLP. They may not have won this year but they'll be back in 2015 to thrash the opposition!

High & Dry

I was really struck by a piece I heard on the radio this week. Award winning architectural practice, BACA, have been given the go-ahead to develop the UK’s first amphibious house. It’s currently in construction on the banks of the Thames, one of the worst hit areas in the recent floods.

BACA are renowned for their highly innovative approach to designing flood proof and flood resistant buildings. Using the model which they’ve developed the house is built on a pontoon which rises with the water levels. The main utilities are connected via a system of flexible pipes and ducts so that they continue to function as the house floats upwards. 

Intrigued, I took a closer look at BACA and spent a fascinating half hour browsing their website. Not surprisingly, they've been in high demand over the past few weeks and were recently called to Downing St to meet with an advisory panel convened in response to the flooding crisis. 

Perhaps one of the most prescient projects was the work which BACA did 6 years ago in 2008, when they won a prestigious €20m competition to design a flood resistant housing development in the Netherlands. The project incorporated floating houses, amphibious residences, such as that currently being built on the Thames and flood resilient units.

Even more interesting, in the light of recent events, were comments made at the time by BACA partner, Robert Barker, who wrote in the Architects Journal. 

“Modern flood management is about working with and understanding natural systems rather than seeking to control them. Our planning and architecture needs to do the same if it is to co-exist with changing waterways”

Six years on, we can only hope that the UK authorities wake up and show the same foresight as the Dutch, by exploring new and possibly radical solutions to the devastation wrought by flooding.

As a final aside, I was delighted to see that the practice will be picking up the MIPIM AR Future Projects Award for Regeneration and Master-planning in Cannes next week. Given for their work on the Dutch Eiland Veur Lent project, the award is yet another example of the work which BACA have been doing in developing flood-resilient developments in challenging environments.

Sarah Chapman

Chapman Consulting are off to MIPIM

It’s that time of year again - the days are getting longer, the abstinence of January is behind us and, along with the rest of the property industry, Sarah and Mark Chapman are preparing to decamp to Cannes for MIPIM, which this year takes place between 11-14 March.

This international property fair, which takes place every March, is universally agreed to be the most important business opportunity of the year for property professionals. Nowhere else will you find so many of the great and the good of the real estate world all in one place.

To give an idea of scale, for the residents and hoteliers of Cannes, MIPIM is second only in size to the legendary Film Festival. 16,000 international delegates descend on the Cote d’Azur resort for four days of full-on networking and deal-making.

The Hotel Martinez, chief hang-out for many of the British delegates, sells a staggering 4,000 bottles of beer every night at MIPIM.  But there’s far more to MIPIM than just the cocktails and the beers. It’s a chance to feel the pulse of the market - what’s hot, who’s investing and what the latest market trends are. Architects go in search of developers to secure that key development. Lawyers and surveyors throw lavish parties in the hope of attracting new business, whilst the regional development agencies flaunt their wares to prospective investors.

We’ve been attending MIPIM for the past 15 years. For us it’s an opportunity to forge new contacts, sniff out deals and projects which could be of interest to our clients and catch up with many of our long-standing contacts in the industry. We also use it to get a feel for the international markets.  Certainly this year that’s one aspect we’re particularly interested in: meeting developers and suppliers who are looking to break into the UK market and seeing how we can work with them to achieve that. 

As seasoned MIPIM goers, what advice would we offer to the MIPIM newbie?

Plan, plan and plan. Everyone says it but it’s so true. Get meetings fixed up before you go. Keep a MIPIM diary on your phone, with details of each meeting, including an up-to-date mobile number for everyone you’re meeting.

We’ve already mentioned the Martinez - late-night networking is de rigeur at Cannes. Beware of waking up the next morning though with a stack of business cards but absolutely no recollection of what you talked about.

It’s not just the bars which are good for networking. I defy anyone at MIPIM to walk more than 50 yards along la Croisette without bumping into somebody they know. And that’s the art of MIPIM, making the most of chance meetings whilst sticking faithfully to that ruthless schedule you made back in the office.

Finally, don’t forget: pack more business cards than you can ever imagine you’ll need, stick in a pair of designer sunglasses to shield your bleary eyes from the Mediterranean sun and throw in a tube of Berocca for that fragile morning-after-the-night-before feeling. 

Flooding by our offices

This was the Thames near our offices at the height of the floods.

The British stiff upper lip rides again ...

The British stiff upper lip rides again with this amusing blues piece to the floods.  All proceeds from this track will be donated to the Somerset Community Foundation Flood Relief Fund.

Click link below to have a listen!

https://thedredgers.bandcamp.com/track/floodplain-blues

  

The Pontoon and Dock Company Ltd help out in the floods

As the flood crisis worsens, Chapman Consulting client, The Pontoon and Dock Company Ltd, come to the aid of flood victims with their temporary pontoon system. We interviewed Managing Director, Dan Bryant who’s been working in some of the worst flood hit areas to get his first-hand opinion on the UK floods.

“An almost unparalleled natural crisis”. That was how one military chief described the relentless series of weather systems streaming in off the Atlantic, which have brought unprecedented levels of flooding to so many parts of England and Wales.

Scenes on the Somerset Levels, which have been under water since the end of last year, are almost medieval. Filthy water, much of it contaminated with sewage, laps in the kitchens and living rooms of houses around Burrowbridge, the latest village on the Levels to be hit by rising floodwater.

In Egham, anxious residents who have been watching the rising waters of the Thames edge ever closer to their properties have now been forced to abandon their homes. The beginning of the week saw a Duck tourist bus, more used to ferrying around overseas visitors, help beleaguered homeowners escape the floodwaters.

Amidst these scenes of devastation, Dan Bryant, owner of Pontoon & Dock, has been  providing assistance to these communities with his company’s system of floating pontoons.

Dan, himself a former army helicopter pilot and tank commander is well used to providing and co-ordinating emergency relief, but even he says he has never seen anything quite like this.

“Yesterday we were down in Burrowbridge on the Levels, installing a floating pontoon so that people can reach their flooded properties in safety. The water on the Levels is now 20ft deep in places. You’ve got a wave system going - yesterday’s winds whipped the waves up so high you could have surfed on them. And the conditions people find themselves in, well, unless you’ve seen it you can’t begin to imagine what it’s like.”

Dan had nothing but praise though for the local community. “The whole relief operation for that village is being co-ordinated by one guy based in the King Alfred pub. They’re doing it all on social media, the community spirit is amazing.”

Dan is in no doubt that the flooding has been exacerbated by successive government’s failure to dredge our waterways. “I can access a dredger in Somerset which could be used on the Levels. I’ve got two more dredgers on standby that can be in the UK within a fortnight. At £325,000 each the cost of those dredgers is a fraction of what the clean-up operation is going to cost.”

Up in Egham, The Pontoon & Dock Company Ltd has also installed a floating pontoon to help local residents. “The beauty of these systems is that they’re flexible and easy to install” said Dan. “They’re ideal when you’re looking at evacuating elderly or disabled residents as they can be brought out of their properties in a wheelchair if necessary. There’s no need for people in that situation to be hauled and manhandled awkwardly. It also means that householders can bring larger possessions out of their properties easily and transport them to dry storage.”

“We’ve got 1,000 square metres of temporary pontoon at our facility in Shropshire which we’re able to get anywhere in England within 4 hours” Dan told me. “We can offer unparalleled expertise in the current crisis and we really want to do all that we can to help those communities affected by the floods."

The Pontoon and Dock Company Ltd can be contacted at:

dan.bryant@pontoonanddock.com

01283 208 891

The Pontoon & Dock Company Ltd

Unit 3A, Blakenhall Farm

Cauldwell

Nr Rosliston

Swadlincote

Derbyshire

DE12 6RU

http://www.pontoonanddock.com

Pontoon & Dock
at Burrowbridge, Somerset