Entire Network Rail Commercial Property portfolio for sale

[yorksrob]

Well, that's another fiasco in the making then.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Well, that's another fiasco in the making then.

As an affected tenant I will keep the forum informed.....

 

[Bensonby]

“This deal is great news – for tenants it will mean significant commitment and investment, and for passengers and taxpayers it will mean massive, essential improvements without an extra burden on the public purse.”

But how is it a burden on the public purse if it was turning an £81m a year profit?!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

But how is it a burden on the public purse if it was turning an £81m a year profit?!

The deal was to sell the property rights and use the £1.5 billion capital to complete NR's CP5 investment plan.
Otherwise more projects would have to be cancelled to avoid NR going over its borrowing limit.

 

[yorksrob]

As an affected tenant I will keep the forum informed.....

I look forward to hearing your report !

 

[deltic]

The deal was to sell the property rights and use the £1.5 billion capital to complete NR's CP5 investment plan.
Otherwise more projects would have to be cancelled to avoid NR going over its borrowing limit.

Network Rail debts are now in excess of £50bn and with interest rates starting to rise its financial position must be getting more difficult-

 

[DarloRich]

It is worth noting that there seems to be no guarantee any of this money will find it's way back to the railways. It has gone to general government coffers.

 

[Gareth Marston]

I look forward to hearing your report !

i'm sure they've been told not to do anything early doors to cause controversy however my fear is well end up in the same situation as the Pub Trade. When they broke up the hegemony of nearly all pubs being tied to a brewery the companies that bought them - the so called PubCo's like Admiral Taverns borrowed the money on the stock exchange so had to jack up the rents - pub landlords with viable business then paid extra to service the PubCos debt and this has lead to a spiraling mess of revolving door tenants, lack of investment in pub buildings, inexperienced landlords which makes people less inclined to go to them and reduced revenues which has leads to closures. Of course at the time we we were all told it was in the best interests of pub goers much like the PR guff being said about the NR sell off.

Mr Grayling & Daft haven't exactly being doing anything to encourage more rail use to compensate for the almost certain rent increases!

 

[DarloRich]

i suspect the above may well be correct. I further suspect the don't do anything to cause controversy period will be small!

 

[Antman]

We have a couple of leaseholds from NR. They are, without doubt, the most badly organised of our more than 300 landlords, which include councils, the NHSPS, random offshore lots as well as one man bands. You can’t get hold of people, there seems to be no effective sharing of information between staff, yet they are typically belligerent, usually wrong (but admit it less often than my ex wife) and seem to specialise in putting people in client facing roles who don’t have English as their first language and struggle to communicate effectively (when it suits them).

I have spent more time dealing with NR on one property in particular than another in house portfolio of 75 properties with the same landlord. They’re not even cheap. To put it in perspective, they are harder work than dealing with the Chinese or certain of the Arab nations. At least if the estate ends up with a monolithic private equity outfit then they’ll just outsource the portfolio management to someone who will be less difficult (if more expensive).

 

[B&I]

I wonder how many times more this portfolio will be sold, how much more each seller will get for it, and how many more wallies there will be on here tellig the rest of us how.wonderful it is when the private sector (ie the City) acquires public assets at knock down prices

 

[WelshBluebird]

When will this country learn? The problem with selling off things to raise money is at some point you run out of things to sell off!
Especially if the asset is bringing in a profit, where on earth is the sense to sell it? What happens next time NR needs some money in a similar vein?

 

[AlterEgo]

It may help the forum to know that the story was covered on the NR Intranet and has received almost unanimously negative comment from employees (who can leave comments below any article), who are saying some of the same things people in this thread are.

 

[snowball]

There's an item on BBC Radio 4 PM right now (17:42).

 

[WatcherZero]

The new owner has pledged to convert 700 empty arches into commercial properties.

 

[snowball]

A piece in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/network-rail-sell-arches-small-businesses

The railway arch economy is a British success story. Don’t kill it, Network Rail
Ben Mackinnon
Small businesses like mine will die if the arch sell-off happens. These thriving communities of old and new deserve better