With its centralised location, ease of access to the motorway network and abundance of attractive countryside, Worcestershire is proving hugely attractive to occupiers and rentals are now at record levels, according to John Truslove director Ben Truslove. John Truslove is way out in front of the rest of the Worcestershire Radius community in terms of deals numbers, with 56 signed off so far this year, and it sits second only to JLL in transacted space. Individually, Ben Truslove has done the most deals (62) across the broader West Midlands region. Truslove says he has been surprised by the speed of recovery post-lockdown although he warns this may be tempered by the shortage of commercial land within the motorway corridors. He believes authorities need to have a strategy for releasing more land in order to provide employment for the occupiers of the housing developments springing up across the county.

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.