Plans to create a Westfield in the south were officially binned this week, as Croydon Council confirmed that the mega project, so long in the making, was not in its post-Covid future for the London suburb.

Who is to blame for this apparent inability for Croydon town centre to get its much needed facelift? Is it the developers - Hammerson and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield? The council? Could it even be John Lewis's fault?

In this special episode of EGLSM, editor Samantha McClary dials in for a chat with a man who spent his formative years in Croydon, Damian Wild, to get his very special and personal take on just what went wrong and what Croydon and the real estate community need to do now.

The focal point of discussions about the Oxford-Cambridge Arc can sometimes fall upon the cities at either end. But the region has so much more to offer.

In this podcast, recorded as part of EG’s Vision for the Arc event, our guests discuss the economic opportunities throughout the area and the work that will need to be done as a framework for the region is formed - including what real estate can bring to the table.

EG deputy editor Tim Burke is joined by

• Rachel Dickie, executive director, investment, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland

A years-long initiative to map out a fresh vision for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc is now officially underway with the launch of a public consultation on the future of the area.

In this podcast, recorded as part of EG’s Vision for the Arc event, our guests discuss the economic opportunities ahead for the region, the role real estate can play in ensuring success, and the innovative approach being taken to the consultation process to ensure as diverse a group a voices as possible is heard.

• Iain Gilbey, partner and head of residential, Pinsent Masons

Jess Harrold is joined by Sam McClary and Alex Daniel for the latest weekly round-up podcast from the EG team.

McClary addresses the depressing findings of the IPCC's latest report on climate change, the role that real estate has to play - and the even greater responsibility that we as individuals have to take for the scale of the problem.

Daniel returns to the topic of the Marble Arch Mound to share his discussions with experts on the public realm lessons that can be learned from the new landmark that has failed to meet expectations.

But can he scale the heights in this week's quiz of the week and finally come out on top?

Modern methods of construction have long been hailed as the solution for some of the housing industry’s biggest challenges, whether rising construction costs, lack of labour or speed of delivery.

But never has a challenge been so grave as climate change. This week, MMC was put back into the spotlight when the United Nations warned of a “code red for humanity” - a call to action that the real estate industry must now answer .

Responding to the seven-year report, industry experts have called for greater support for net zero homes and MMC production.

In this podcast EG’s residential editor, Emma Rosser, is joined by Patrick Bergin, chief financial officer at ilke Homes, Hannah Holmes, research associate at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the report Deploying Modular Housing in the UK from Places for People and Andrew Shepherd, managing director of TopHat .

The group discuss the benefits of MMC, the barriers to growth and getting housebuilders on board.

Jess Harrold is joined by Clifford Darton QC and George Woodhead, both of Selborne Chambers, to explain the recent Court of Appeal decision in Ralph v Ralph [2021] EWCA Civ 1106; [2021] PLSCS 135 - a case involving an application for rectification of the Land Register.

Darton and Woodhead, who acted for the successful appellant, outline the facts of this father-and-son dispute that arose after a cross was entered in a box on the TR1 form stating that they were to hold the property "on trust for themselves as tenants in common in equal shares”.

Together they summarise how the Court of Appeal decided the case, and the requirements for rectification of the register.

In addition, they consider the wider implications for cohabiting homeowners - including detailed analysis of two unanswered questions left by Ralph that are ripe for further litigation in future.

Most cases concerning rectification for common mistake relate to commercial contracts. But the question that arose in  was whether a Land Registry form TR1, signed by the transferors, but not by the transferees, should be rectified to remove a manuscript cross from the box stating that “the transferees are to hold the property 

The trial judge took the view that neither of the transferees had ever intended that they should be joint owners in equity. They were father and son – and the son was a party to the purchase in 2000 because his father could not obtain a mortgage advance on his income alone. He did not contribute to the purchase price, or to the mortgage repayments, and it was wholly improbable that his father was gifting half of the property to him – thereby excluding any interest which his siblings or their mother might otherwise have in that share and giving him an immediate right to an occupation rent from his parents. It followed that the son did not have any beneficial interest in the property, which was held for his father alone.

In this 30-minute episode of the EG Property Podcast, EG editor Samantha McClary sits down with tech leader and investor and founder of SuperPitch, Joyeeta Das, and Ayesha Ofori, founder of PropElle, investor and Goldman Sachs alumna, to talk about investing, entrepreneurialism and diversity.

Women, particularly women of colour, are massively under-funded as founders, they are often disregarded, not because of their business plans – which as you’ll hear from Das in this conversation, are often more considered and considerate, but because they are female. Often it is not on purpose, often it is not conscious, but often it is the case.

But instead of just talking about the issue, Das and her crew of supporters are doing something about it.

SuperPitch is a global cross industry initiative to eliminate the biased access to capital for under-represented founders, particularly women. The founders have committed to driving investment of $5bn in under-represented founders by 2026 by partnering with investors, mentors, influencers and experts.

To find out more about SuperPitch listen in and visit www.superpitch.co.uk

This week’s episode of Bricks & Mortar sees host Sarah Jackman catch up with Terry Watts, CEO of the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust, and Suzanne Thorne, head of geography at Dunottar School in Reigate, Surrey.

Sarah and Terry first spoke around 12 months ago about the launch of a new initiative – My Environment My Future – a schools programme promoting the built environment and careers within it to those taking GCSE geography. A year later and the programme has been accessed by around 200 schools – exceeding Watts’s original hope and making it, he believes, the biggest schools programme in this sector.

But he’s not stopping there. He’s upped his projection for the coming year and, in the next five years, hopes to reach half of all schools in the UK. Thorne – who has helped put together the materials – can attest to their usefulness in the classroom, not only in helping to highlight the the career possibilities to students, but in helping to support teachers provide that insight.

Hear them discuss the provision of careers information for the built environment, how the programme fits within it and how it has been received so far.

In EG's review of the week, Jess Harrold is joined by news editor Pui-Guan Man and offices reporter Alex Daniel.

Pui discusses Hammerson's new four-pronged strategy and Alex summarises the headline points of our London office market analysis for Q2 - and together they tackle more of the latest news.

But only one can triumph in the highly competitive quiz of the week.

A red hot logistics market has powered the North East’s industrial sector through lockdown but an exciting future beckons for manufacturing, particularly in green technology, believes Naylors Gavin Black partner and industrial specialist Keith Stewart.

Stewart leads the way in the North East’s individual dealmaker rankings with 396,000 sq ft of space transacted so far this year while Naylors Gavin Black sits at the top of the region’s industrial rankings. He says the demand for space is now so strong that occupiers are forced to look beyond the region’s historic hotspots of Gateshead, Washington and Newcastle.

The North East was recently given a boost with Nissan’s announcement of a £1bn Gigafactory - the region’s second – and Stewart believes the area can develop further as a major hub for green technology, not just through the companies that will be attracted to the area by Nissan but also through the development of offshore wind power and partnership with the region’s universities.