Nationally acclaimed street artists, kELzO and Entise, have brought their creativity to Collyhurst giving a once popular parade of local shops an artistic makeover.

Paying homage to Collyhurst residents past and present, together with popular landmarks and locations, the South Church Parade mural has proved to be an eye-catching addition to the area.

Locals have taken to social media to celebrate the street art which features boxing legend Mike Brodie and comedian Les Dawson alongside other characters who hail from the North Manchester suburb. To provide balance, the artists have painted wildlife seen in the neighbouring Irk valley and Sandhills areas into the mural which stretches across shutters, a gable end and onto a separate building,

Funded by Northwards Housing and Far East Consortium, the Collyhurst community artwork project took the artistic duo fourteen days. Tony Brady, aka KELzO, is a keen artist and historian, fascinated by inner city regeneration and development. He has been tracking activity around Angel Meadow and Collyhurst and capturing the changing landscape through his photography. When asked to undertake the Collyhurst commission he was delighted as its an area he is familiar with through growing up around the city centre.

“Manchester is changing rapidly, and I’m genuinely fascinated by the transformation”, says Tony. “My true passion is Manchester history and the stories that can be told about areas such as Collyhurst, the Irk Valley and Angel Meadow. Bringing some of those stories to life through art is a great way to engage with the community and bring more people over to the businesses on South Church Parade.”

Collyhurst is in the ‘Northern Gateway’, one of the largest residential-led regeneration projects in the UK, which aims to deliver up to 15,000 new homes across a range of tenures and housing types. The project is a joint venture between Manchester City Council and property developer Far East Consortium (FEC) and aims to develop new and existing neighbourhoods as part of an extended city centre, with improved walkways, cycleways and public transport connections.

11 properties, ranging from 25,000 sq ft to over 120,000 sq ft, including buildings in TraffordCity (Manchester) and MediaCityUK (Salford) are the first in the UK to demonstrate net zero carbon status based on their operational carbon emissions, action taken to reduce those emissions and their renewable energy use.

Princes Dock at Peel L&P’s Liverpool Waters development has also achieved the status of net zero emissions. (Full list below)

Peel L&P has a long track record of leadership on sustainability being the first developer to achieve the BREEAM communities standard at MediaCityUK in 2011 and the first major property company to achieve the energy management standard ISO 50001 in 2015.

The most important action has been to reduce energy demand. Last year alone, Peel L&P invested £859,000 in 66 energy efficiency projects in these offices to benefit tenants by reducing their carbon emissions from energy use by 13%.

Any remaining emissions from the newly verified buildings will be offset through a Verified Carbon Standard tree-planting project in the North West to absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.

The announcement has been welcomed by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham who agrees that the verification plays an important role in the city region’s 2038 target response to the climate emergency.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said:

“Our homes and workplaces are responsible for a huge proportion of Greater Manchester’s carbon emissions, 33% and 32% respectively. If we are to deliver on our carbon neutral commitment for 2038, published in our five-year environment plan, we need to urgently make deep cuts in emissions from our building stock. In this announcement today, Peel L&P have shown that those deep cuts are not only possible, they’re also good for business. The message to others now is pretty clear: no excuses, if Peel L&P can pull this off, then so can you.”

Peel L&P’s work to reduce carbon emissions across its assets is part of the company’s first five-year sustainability plan which supports the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (UN SDGs) to help create a fair and sustainable planet by 2030.

Peel L&P’s Sustainability Director Jo Holden, said:

“The region has set itself ambitious targets for achieving carbon neutrality and we want to demonstrate how we are playing our part by taking action to mitigate climate change. We will re-assess these properties annually, talk to our tenants about their role in reducing carbon emissions and look to increase the number of net zero carbon buildings in our portfolio.”

John Alker, Director of Policy & Places, UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), said:

“Awareness of the climate emergency is at an all-time high, but we now need to embark on a decade of urgent action. The property sector has a huge role to play, so it is fantastic to see this type of leadership from Peel L&P and we are delighted that the UKGBC Framework has helped guide the way. This also supports the green ambitions of some of our great cities, showing that the north can lead the way in the transition to net zero.”

Whole buildings verified as Net Zero Carbon:

The Venus, TraffordCity
The Vic, MediaCityUK
The Alex, MediaCityUK
Quay West, MediaCityUK
Digital World Centre, MediaCityUK
16 Robertson Street, Glasgow

Office space verified as Net Zero Carbon:
Peel L&P head office, intu Trafford Centre

Landlord’s emissions verified as Net Zero Carbon:

Princes Dock, Liverpool Waters – includes No.8, No.10, No.12 Princes Dock and Princes Dock Multi Storey Car Park.

For the last five years, Peel L&P has delivered annual improvements in energy efficiency of 3% in its major assets, due to the hard work of the Energy Champions and the ISO 50001 energy management system.

Over £1.1 million was invested in state-of-the-art energy saving equipment during a recent refurbishment of The Vic at MediaCityUK. As a result, the property is anticipating energy and carbon savings of 60% annually.

Bruntwood has reported strong financial results following a year of transformational growth. Against a backdrop of unprecedented political and economic uncertainty, the leading property group has both unveiled plans for new flagship developments and invested in the refurbishment of existing assets across the North and Midlands.

The results for the year to the end of September represent the first financial period since the group created Bruntwood SciTech, a 50-50 joint venture with Legal & General, to develop a network of innovation districts across the UK.

The creation of Bruntwood SciTech and the launch of Bruntwood Works – a new brand for its core office business – allowed the group to better respond to its customers’ increased and diverse expectations, and strengthened its ability to deliver its purpose of creating thriving cities.

Turnover for Bruntwood Group Limited rose 16.6% to £160.1m, whilst the total value of its assets under management increased from £1.3bn to £1.4bn. Pre-tax profit of £52m was achieved. This was down on the prior year, but ahead of expectations and reflective of the re-risked nature of the group as the percentage of the company’s capital allocated to development was reduced to a third of the level of the previous year largely as a result of the introduction of Legal & General as a JV partner.

Profits included £10m for Bruntwood SciTech following a successful first year for the joint venture. Shareholders’ funds rose 8% to £614m.

Chief Executive Chris Oglesby said: “At Bruntwood we are relentless in our passion to support our customers and to work closely with our civic and academic partners to help them grow by unlocking economic opportunities through the development of their property assets.

“In a year where the UK saw a sharp fall in inward investment as a result of the uncertainty over Brexit, we invested a record amount in creating places for businesses to thrive, reflecting our belief in the underlying strength and potential of great cities like Birmingham Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester.

“While we invest for the long-term, and never judge our performance in the context of a single year’s figures, these are strong results following a record year where our profits were buoyed by a number of one-off exceptional items.”

First year results for Bruntwood SciTech Limited showed pre-tax profits of £10.1m and net assets of £240.6m as a result of 12 months of significant progress being made in the development of Circle Square, Citylabs 2.0 and Alderley Park.

The company was appointed as 25% shareholder in Sciontec Liverpool, alongside partners – Liverpool City Council, the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, and announced the next phase of the Innovation Birmingham campus, with the development of the 120,000 sq ft, Enterprise Wharf, due to open in 2021.

Development has also continued at Circle Square in Manchester’s Oxford Road innovation district. Plans were announced earlier this year to bring forward the development of No.3 Circle Square, a 220,000 sq. ft. 15 storey commercial building, to March 2020, while KPMG established a new innovation hub at Manchester Technology Centre.

Citylabs 2.0 topped out in September 2019 and will be home to global molecular diagnostics company QIAGEN as part of a new genomics and precision medicine campus. Following the success of Citylabs 1.0 and 2.0, planning permission has been granted for the £50m development of Citylabs 4.0 to create further capacity at the Campus.

At Alderley Park, a £10m investment into new biology and chemistry labs was announced, whilst a new coworking space, gym and sports complex also launched. The 150,000 sq. ft. redevelopment of Glasshouse offering coworking, serviced, managed and leased space for forward-thinking, innovative businesses is set to launch in February 2020.

2019 was also a year of evolution for Bruntwood Works, which launched its £50m Pioneer programme. The building transformation scheme is reinventing a number of its landmark buildings across the North and Midlands including 111 Piccadilly and Blackfriars to create environments focused on offering market leading innovation and amenity.

Bruntwood Works’ joint venture with Trafford Council saw the redevelopment of the former Kellogg’s HQ building reopen as new university UA92 whilst further plans have since been revealed for investment in housing, a new primary school and commercial space.

The partnership with Trafford Council has continued to evolve. In October Bruntwood Works extended the joint venture – with the £50m acquisition of Stretford Mall and Stamford Quarter in Altrincham, an investment that underlines the company’s commitment to town centre regeneration and the role they play in helping communities thrive.

Reflecting the continued growth of Bruntwood and its focus on recruiting and nurturing promising talent, employee numbers increased by nearly 100 to 850 over the last year.

Bruntwood also continued its pioneering work on sustainability as part of its commitment to be net zero carbon by 2030, by signing up to the Better Buildings Partnership’s new Climate Change Commitment; which aims to improve the sustainability of existing commercial building stock.

Chris Oglesby added: “The cities in the North and Midlands are still growing and have proved to be very resilient as a result of the strong progress they have made in recent years and this gives us confidence for the future.

“We are seeing businesses demand far more from their workspaces and the wider place making offer in our cities; to help them attract and retain the best talent.

“Our overarching purpose to create healthy, vibrant and, ultimately, thriving cities will continue to see us doing far more than simply developing individual buildings, but rather working hand in hand with civic, business and third sector leaders, to make cities that work for their people.”

Continuing the legacy of founder Michael Oglesby – who passed away in November – Bruntwood’s long-standing commitment to supporting communities saw the Group and the Oglesby Charitable Trust, donate more than £5m to local charities and initiatives working in a number of areas, including environmental sustainability, arts, medical research, education and social inequality.

Private equity deals in the North of England rose by 17 per cent in 2019 with 46 completed transactions, compared with 39 in 2018.

The latest figures from the Centre for Management Buyout Research (CMBOR), sponsored by Equistone Partners Europe and Investec Specialist Bank, show that while the overall number of deals increased in the North, the total value of the transactions dropped significantly from £2.5bn in 2018 to £1.3bn in 2019 – a fall of almost 50 per cent.

However, the research reveals that the North is climbing the ranks when compared to its regional counterparts, accounting for one quarter (46) of total UK deals (186) this year, after having contributed just 18 per cent in 2018.

These figures are made up of a number of significant deals in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside. These include the sale of the UK’s leading independent holiday home provider Sykes Cottages by Livingbridge, to private equity firm Vitruvian Partners in October for £375m and Macquarie’s public-to-private acquisition of Premier Technical Services Group for £300m. Braveheart Investment Group also completed the purchase of the £112m remaining shares in scientific instrument company Paraytec.

Andi Tomkinson, Partner at Equistone Partners Europe, said: “While the overall volume of UK transactions fell again in 2019, this is perhaps unsurprising considering the recent unstable economic outlook, and it is encouraging to see the volume of Northern deals climbing to rival those in the South.

“With the general election over, it will be interesting to reflect on how this impacts investment in 2020 – this may lead to a jump in both value and volume of deals in the North and the UK as a whole.”

Investec’s Dan Sheahan commented: “Although the market has been waiting for political clarity and certainty, strong, promising companies are still able to find buyers. The North of England contains a wealth of promising companies, attracting capital not just within the UK, but from overseas too, particularly in the tech sector. As the UK’s political future becomes more certain, this is only set to grow.