As the Financial Times has noted:
Pret A Manger, Hugo Boss and the UK's largest independent toy retailer have been threatened with legal action by shopping centre landlord Westfield over unpaid rent as England enters a second lockdown.
“It's unprecedented, it's not a reasonable action for a landlord to take at a time of year like this, especially on day one of the lockdown,” said Gary Grant, executive chairman of The Entertainer, a toy chain which has 173 stores.
Mr Grant received a letter from Westfield on Thursday demanding that the company pay its bill in full or face legal action to collect outstanding rent.
I have said it before, and no doubt I will have to say it again: it is the rentiers who will bring this country down.
And unless the government takes action to stop them doing so then we are in deep trouble.
But to date, there is no sign that they are in the slightest bit aware of this.
Worry.
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Apparently Serco have lost their Atomic Weapons Establishment ‘management’ contract, the government having renationalised AWE. Let us hope that this wasn’t because of lost materials or end product.
Westfield has Australian origins and has been challenged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission there following harassment of tenants and was charged with “Unconscionable conduct and intimidation” of its tenants. It seems there is a history of this.
Beyond the obvious external rent collectors and extractors.do these companies and others have internal rent collectors to deal with too? Outsourced services like post/mail and payroll are obvious ones, but there must be more. Perhaps a shift back towards doing ‘things’ yourself is needed.
You obviously fail to understand that if the rent can’t be collected, that means that there is no money to pay the company’s debt holders or equity investors, which are typically pension funds.
But unless, it’s public sector schemes (for Unions that pay you), you don’t care about ‘ordinary’ pension funds for the man in the street, trying to save for their retirement, do you?!
I fully understand this – as mu linked posts all show
Why not read it?
Jason, I think you fail to grasp how deep rentierism has polluted our whole economy.
It goes far deeper and wider than just pension scheme funding.
That is important but a byproduct of the overall malaise.
By sheer chance after reading Richard’s blog this morning, I listened to this podcast from Mark Blyth.
https://youtu.be/4fh5UvV8hfU
It a discussion about Brett Christopher’s book, Rentier Capitalism, Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It.
It was certainly an eye-opener for me, and I think reinforces Richard’s blog. I suggest most people who think they know what rentierism is will have the same reaction as me.
I’ll have to buy Brett Christopher’s book when it comes out to do some more investigation.
Thanks
Pensions are by definition long term investments. Short term returns are less of an interest. By helping the businesses to survive the lockdown, there is a much greater chance of getting their money (just over a longer period) by going to court, they are likely to force them into administration. They will get nothing, or next to, plus have costs. If the shops close, they are likely to stand empty for some time and any new tenant get a 6+ months rent holiday to entice them to enter into a lease.
Strikes me as a typical case of cuttings ones own nose off…….
Agreed
You know, I find most if not all Westfield ‘shopping centre’s’ a bit shitty anyway, but this sort of action is definitely pathetic.
I hate them
Personal preferences and prejudices are not an excuse to destroy the savings of price investors’ pension funds,
Actually, I would very strongly suggest – as I make clear in my writing – that I am doing the exact opposite of what you suggest
This video (podcast) is worth a watch (listen). An interview w economist Michael Hudson from 2Nov on financialisation and deindustrialisation.
https://youtu.be/_shpkThngcE
Oops, can’t see link. Reposted in case I missed including.
The neo-liberal financier class rage against government taxation for stealing all the profits and suffocating business, when it is actually they who are doing so (through rent and usury), and their rage against government is actually for stopping them taking even more.