CarGiant digging their heels in...

JudoRanger · Jul 30, 2014

http://judethecat.com/car-giant-is-a-minnow-in-the-battle-of-old-oak-common/

For those concerned about Car Giant putting a large torque wrench into QPR’s plans to build a new 40,000-seater stadium on their plot in Old Oak Common by 2018 fear not, great British bureaucracy is on our side.
Earlier this month, Tony Mendes, the managing director of Car Giant, placed a marker in the sand over any proposed sale of the land:

The regeneration of Old Oak Common and in particular the land owned by Car Giant Ltd is a complex issue and may take significantly longer to finalise than some parties are anticipating.

Schemes that have been announced for this part of Old Oak Common, including a new stadium for QPR, are speculative and presumptuous.
At the time, Tony Fernandes was quick to retort:

It’s disappointing [to see] some of the press that has come out from Car Giant, but I’ve been through this many times, with airlines and stuff.
We are making great progress and I still believe those dates are achievable.
Now the papers are reported another “blow” to the plans with the news that Car Giant are submitting their own plans to develop the site. At first glance this may appear a blow, but it is nothing of the sort, and I will attempt to tell you why.

At the heart of Car Giant’s public outcry was a very simple fact of which all parties involved in the process are painfully aware: it’s not a case of IF they go, it’s a case of WHEN and how much compensation they get.

When a planning authority moves to regenerate an area, it pretty much always gets its own way. When the planning authority is the London Development Agency (LDA) backed by all local authorities effected by the change and all parties in Government, no small car dealership stands a hope in hell.

The precedents are there for all to see: in plenty of time, the area designated for the Olympic Park was cleared promptly and with relatively little fuss to accommodate the London Olympics in 2012. There were complaints, and some businesses claimed they were being drummed out of an area they had propped up for decades, but it cut little mustard with the authorities. If historically important archaeological remains can’t halt progress, a small business (which is what Car Giant are in macroeconomic terms) has no chance.

More recently, Liverpool City Council has pushed through plans to clear the remaining 30 houses needed to complete the redevelopment of Anfield – the rest were negotiated out of their houses.

And this would appear to be what is behind Car Giant’s latest statement. They know they are going to be going, but they want their fair share of the money.

The authorities set a precedent with the Olympic compulsory purchase orders by stating that they were open to companies using relocation to expand their businesses.

Before the torch was carried into the Olympic Stadium, a spokesman for the LDA (which spent Â£681m on land purchases for the Olympics) said:

The LDA met and exceeded its statutory responsibilities … In the process we protected some 98 per cent of the jobs that had been on the site. Several companies used the move to consolidate and expand their operations.
By seeking planning permission now, Mendes is setting a price for the sale of his land, and he wants more than he is currently being offered – which is a perfectly legitimate standpoint to take during a negotiation. Without the planning application Car Giant has little purchase on the purchase price.

But Car Giant should be careful about playing hard ball: the regeneration has set aside an area to the west of Old Oak Common to accommodate businesses moved from the phase 1 area, which includes the Car Giant site. There is a time lapse between phase 1 and the rest of the development, which is due for completion by 2030, which could mean that if they dig their heals in too deep they could be forced to locate to a plot of their choosing that won’t be ready immediately. A devastating conclusion to their business.

There is speculation that they have been offered relocation to the old Guinness brewery site in Park Royal but this is too small a site in which to shoehorn their current 42-acre plot. But in a part of London littered with derelict land ripe for industrial use there should be something suitable nearby.

If the car seller is playing politics it should be especially careful: it is very likely to find itself outvoted. This close to an election there are very few votes to be won by blocking regeneration in an area that is one of the more deprived areas of the capital, and with a general election next May – and perhaps more importantly, a London mayoral election in 2016 – pushing through the proposals for Old Oak Common is very likely to become a manifesto promise, particularly for Boris Johnson who will have lost his Olympic legacy by the time he considers any re-election campaign.

The headline figures that the politicians will push are the promise of 90,000 new jobs in an area where more than half of adults of employment age are without jobs. And 19,000 net new homes in a city which has a shortfall of 42,000 dwellings.

Support is not only from the local area: 1,500 support jobs are being created in Birmingham for HS2, which is at the heart of the redevelopment project; MPs in the south-west want to see First Great Western’s depot to move to Cornwall; while politicians in the East Midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and York are all keen to reap the benefits. All three major parties have expressed their approval while in Government.

In a nutshell, Car Giant are a big fish in a small pond. They have been a loyal servant to the local area for 30 years and feel that the “largest car dealership in the world” deserves to be treated with a lot more respect. I would imagine that their sponsorship of QPR in one of the darker financial periods of the club’s history sticks in the craw somewhat.

But it will happen. Politically, it needs to happen in a timely manner, and no amount of posturing from a small business in the heart of the redevelopment zone will stand in the way of great British bureaucracy.
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This raises a very good point - the whole scheme is backed by people at the very top, and just like with the London 2012 compulsory purchase orders, nothing will stand in its way.

TheLoneRanger · Jul 30, 2014

Old oak is Boris johnson's darling scheme, he wants and he wants it fast. When you take in to consideration that all the major political parties are behind hs2, that Boris has already consulted with the relevant councils and planning permission is essentially already there, it is hard to see anything stopping the project.

The car giant boss seems a bit of a prat or is just raising some noise to get some free advertising, as I'm sure he is very aware that a compulsory purchase order will stop them in their tracks.

Also he talks about wanting to expand and include affordable housing, yeah nice try, but seeing as Boris has already sorted with the council that the regeneration goes ahead with us as owners of a stadium, I can't imagine car giant being given planning permission. So he can call us presumptuous, but I would say he is the one doing that. He picks us out for attention, forgetting that we aren't the one creating the plans for this.

CarGiant digging their heels in...

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CarGiant digging their heels in...

JudoRanger Well-Known Member

TheLoneRanger Well-Known Member

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