Incentive Facilities Management hosted a round table at Capital & Counties’ Covent Garden offices, attended by a cross-section of landlords, managing agents and tenants’ representatives. The panel was asked what way is the market heading – total facilities management, single service provision or in-house?

At 1.4m sq ft, with a weekly footfall of 600,000, Manchester Arndale is one of the foremost retail destinations in the UK. Being slap-bang in the middle of Manchester city centre with good transport links and a unique student market, the Arndale attracts Britain’s second highest footfall after the Bullring in Birmingham.

Fiona Bruce, BBC newscaster and Action Medical Research ambassador, accepted a cheque for £27,050 on behalf of Action Medical Research from Chris Grigg, British Land’s Chief Executive, at the company’s London offices.

Capita Symonds, part of the Capita Group, has bought the commercial property management specialist NB Real Estate for £10m. The deal is part of Capita's drive to create a multi-disciplinery practice covering the full real estate lifecycle.

Property advisor Drivers Jonas is to merge with business advisory firm Deloitte to create one of the largest real estate businesses in Europe, with around 700 partners and staff.

NewRiver Retail, the AIM-listed retail property specialist set up by ex-Halladale duo David and Allan Lockhart, has made its second acquisition since its flotation last year with the £5.5m purchase of the Deeping Centre in Market Deeping, near Peterborough.

Capital & Regional, manager of the Mall, Junction and X-Leisure funds, has reported a sustained improvement in both the investment and occupational markets. It is taking advantage of the upturn to sell properties.

HMV Group has replaced the managing director of its bookselling business Waterstone’s, describing the business’s recent performance as “unsatisfactory”.

Incentive FM Consulting, part of the Incentive FM Group, has been awarded a 12-month consultancy project by Capital Shopping Centres to review and tender the facilities management work for 11 centres totalling 12.9m sq ft.

Commercial property yields strengthened in December 2009 for the ninth successive month, although the fall was the smallest since July as signs emerged that market pricing was starting to stabilise.

Lend Lease is re-tendering the three-year facilities management contract for Touchwood in Solihull and Bluewater. The brief requires that top quality customer service and value for money are offered at both centres. Head of asset management, Mark Boor, said: “The re-tender provides us with the opportunity to ensure that both continue to act as an industry benchmark.”

Land Securities is offering retailers a new lease that sets out monthly rents and transparent terms. Clearlet, which will be rolled out across Land Securities’ retail portfolio, hopes to end feuds by abolishing premium charges on monthly rent payments.

Speaking at the BCSC conference, former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo listed some of the Conservative party’s proposals that are likely to have a major impact on retail and retail property after the next election. And he warned that the economic storm is far from over.

A year on from the Lehman Brothers collapse and consumers are spending again. But they’re buying less.

UK retail sales values fell 0.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis from August 2008, when sales had fallen, hit by very wet weather. On a total basis, sales rose 2.2 per cent against a 1.4 per cent gain in August 2008.

New research from global real estate adviser Cushman & Wakefield predicts that 2010 will see the lowest level of European shopping centre development activity for five years. And the UK is no exception.

The Experian National Retail Footfall Index in August revealed that the month showed an overall year-on-year fall in shopper visits of 4.1 per cent.

Union Square, Hammerson’s 700,000-sq ft retail-led regeneration scheme in Aberdeen city centre, will open to the public on 29 October 2009 and it is already more than 50 per cent let.

Footfall across the UK fell by 2.3 per cent in July following a similar performance over the last three months, according to the Retail Sales Monitor from the BRC and KPMG.

A sunny start to July strengthened the UK retail market with like-for-like sales rising in value by 1.8 per cent, figures from the BRC reveal.

Vacancy rates have dropped by an average of 25 per cent across the UK’s top 20 shopping centres since January, according to a recent survey by DTZ.

New research from Drivers Jonas paints a picture of a market nearing its floor. Market sentiment and investor appetite has significantly improved over the last three months. At the same time the supply of available investment opportunities remains low as liquidity pressure for the institutions and listed property companies has eased, Howard Richards reports.

The Department of Communities and Local Government says awareness of the 2007 Code for Leasing Business Premises is very low, especially among small business tenants. Research commissioned by the department from the University of Reading found that despite a strong focus on dissemination of the new code, awareness of the 2007 code is no better than that found for the earlier 2002 code.

According to insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor, 74 per cent more retailers are in financial distress now than during the second quarter of 2008. But the number of retailers with ‘critical’ problems has only grown by 17 per cent since the last quarter.

Shopping Centre has appointed its first editorial advisory panel. Founder members include Andrew Parkinson, general manager at Bluewater, and Martyn Chas, chairman of DTZ's retail division.

The BRC is calling on all political parties to pledge new support for the UK’s ailing high streets, and its campaign is already garnering high profile support.

Hamleys is one of the world's biggest top shops and one of the UK's most famous brands. The London store which has been trading for more than 250 years, has remained the only standalone store with the full offering, despite a growing number of aitport shops and a brief dalliance with concession stores. That is, until now.

Cleaning and maintenance is pivotal in ensuring shopping malls look their best. But can they be clean, lean and green? Hannah Previtt investigates how cash-strapped centres are coping with the challenge of being environmentally clean

To celebrate its relaunch, Shopping Centre commissioned an exclusive survey of centre managers from Business Blueprints to find out what’s happening out on the malls.

Retail interest is continuing to gather pace at Clyde shopping centre despite the economic difficulties that are affecting lettings at other centres in Scotland, and the 782,000-sq ft centre in Clydebank has managed to secure a number of new lettings in recent months.

Yesterday’s BCSC President’s Lunch, held at BAFTA in Piccadilly, saw Cadena’s retail guru Neil Varnham take up the presidency for 2010. After accepting the mantel from former president Jeremy Collins, he spoke of the “significant challenges in the economy and shopping centre industry”.