| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Another High Road Casualty | |
| Posted by: | Joe Conneely | |
| Date/Time: | 15/01/12 13:23:00 |
| Interesting thread - I am not sure from informal comments made to me by certain shopkeepers around Chiswick that it is major fund or property landlords who over extended themselves to banks in many local cases. Instead it is long standing landlords in the area who are seeking to use the legally binding lease terms they have in place to increase rents under "upward only" appraisals. The Irish example and proposal is a red herring as the "Celtic Tiger" economy collapsed due to the over extended property sector and its heavy financing by Irish Banks. This is what largely drove that country's economic collapse (including the main culprit bank) so the newly elected Irish government having to "police" the property sector plus continue to bail out the banks was a pre requisite in getting their economy under control. The UK does not have anything like these Irish issues. Plus given a very property and building industry friendly Tory front bench (George Osborne especially butting in on announcing easier green fields developments, which as Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed a strange move ago and outside his ministerial bailiwick) one doubts many of the comments here will get much traction I fear. The other element missing from the debate is the increased importance of the internet as a shopping medium even in the Xmas sales - the harsh reality much as I try to support local shops is I also buy many items via the web and from general observations and comments made to me at the Chiswick Parcel Office the increased delivery of such packages is what is keeping them in business! Finally, while Westfield from my visits pre and post Xmas/New Year periods looks busy, when you go the the restaurants especially, located in the Avenue and Terrace areas, you do not get a feeling they are always heaving at the gunwales (and again the staff confirm this informally) so I do not get the impression it is as big a threat to W4 as sometimes perceived. The real sad truth I would suggest is that W4 is not suffering as much of the rest of the country - a recent visit to Newbury's High Street area and the West Midlands (Telford) showed a much deeper level of pain than what is being sen locally however unpalatable that fact is. |