Tenant Problems, Live Developments & H2 2026 Planning

Now, today, I want to touch on how the business has been performing year to date, how student changeover went at the end of June, some tenant issues that have honestly been really testing my patience, where my development projects are up to, including my own home, and a bit of what's coming next.

Now, before I get into all of that, I should at least acknowledge the fact that we've got a new Prime Minister.

Andy Burnham has, of course, made his way into number 10 whilst I've been away in Spain.

He's what, the seventh Prime Minister yet? In nearly 10 years, the cabinet has been reshuffled yet again.

Now, look, I've been doing this nearly 20 years and a lot of people have come and gone from number 10 during that period.

And I don't want to get into a political debate or... longer conversation than we really need to have about any of this stuff, because I feel like we'll probably be having it again and again and again and again.

And that is part of the problem.

As business owners, as investors in property, we really have to set our own policies and objectives and stick to them.

And some things may come along and make that difficult for us.

And some things may make that a little bit easier for us.

But what I can honestly say after nearly 20 years of doing this is that nothing is really going to make a material difference to you or I.

You have to think long term enough.

You have to think well beyond the next couple of years.

If you really believe in property, stick to the fundamentals that I talk about week in, week out.

on this show.

If you believe in real estate as a source of capital growth and wealth creation and its ability to generate recurring income, and if you have a passion for creating property and doing good things for good people, our tenants, then this is the right game for you to be in.

But it isn't easy and these cronies are not likely to make it any easier for us, but please don't let all of that bog you down because trust me, It has been this way for a long, long time.

Nobody's coming to save us.

We have to set our own agenda, stick to it and do what we really, really believe in.

If you get dragged into the political conversation, you'll find it very difficult to go anywhere and if you make decisions based on the news, you almost certainly won't make any decisions or you will make the wrong decisions.

That is all I really want to say about it.

Good luck to Andy Burnham.

I hope he does great things for us.

But time will, of course, tell.

And in the meanwhile, I'm going to focus on what I have already determined I am going to focus on.