London on the slide (Reading's not even a city :D )

[Unmoderated]

This is in Get Reading local news but a couple of snippets: https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/business/reading-been-named-one-worlds-18816507

Reading was 13th place in the Tier 2 Cities of the Future ranking, compiled by FDI Intelligence.

The report looks at second cities and other major non-capital hubs that excel in a range of categories around economic, social, education and technology.

The town was also 9th in the separate ranking for Business Friendliness, which looks at factors to do with how easy it is to set up and do business in the the town.

Reading was 13th out of 116 cities ranked according to economic potential, human capital and lifestyle, cost effectiveness, connectivity and business friendliness, as well as by foreign direct investment strategy.Reading was one of three places in the UK in the ranking. Edinburgh and Manchester - which are cities - were the other two.

Manchester was above Reading in 12th place and Edinburgh in eighth place. 

[Unmoderated]

London not on the slide... it actually smashed the Tier 1 award of tech city of the future.

https://www.fdiintelligence.com/article/77846

 

[msi]

Reading is an overpriced sh*thole with unusually good rail and road links. Friendly and proud villages caught up in urban sprawl and gentrification

[spyguy]

There's a Reading post in the SE forum.

Reading has good rail connections, being one of the largest railway interconnects in the South.

Its roads, however good they look on paper, are shit - congestion is chronic and can no longer be avoided by travelling earlier or later.

And, no, thats not bust making  money, its more busy desperate staying afloat.

From the comments:

Clearly these people have never been aware near Reading, or any of it's "vibrate" suburbs.

I doubt the people making these rankings have ever been to Reading...

Theres a earlier  poof piece:

https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/business/berkshire-towns-declared-cities-future-17729884

fDi is a world-leader in investment promotion and economic development solutions.  It measures the strength of towns and cities across Europe based on five criterion, which includes:

Economic potential

Human capital and lifestyle

Cost effectiveness

Connectivity

Business friendliness

Slough was revealed to be the best place in the 10 Small Cities of the Future 2020/21 report.

Any survey that puts Slough at the top of anything but shithole is probably rigged.

Slough is already home to big names like O2, Amazon, Burger King, Mars and even Ferrari.

Which is a lie. The HQ is

Ferrari Group Ltd, Headquarter 
43 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
W1K3HL – London

The 'Slough' site is:

Ferrari Express Ltd. – Airport Office
Unit 12, Trident Industrial Estate, Blackthorne Rd., Colnbrook,
SL3 0AX – Slough, Berkshire

Which is an industrial estate adjacent to Hrow that just ahhpen to have a SL postcode.

These surveys are popular with idiot councillors and the people who through up big offices in shitholes and call them 'London&'

London - Gatwick

London  - Slough

etc etc.

 

 

 

 

[Locke]

1 hour ago, spyguy said:

bust making  money

The modern economy in three words.

[Freki]

Reading and its over supply of office building pre covid, now that people don't really want to go to an office block anymore I wonder what will happen to all of those glass boxes. 

[spyguy]

11 minutes ago, Freki said:

Reading and its over supply of office building pre covid, now that people don't really want to go to an office block anymore I wonder what will happen to all of those glass boxes. 

Back in the filing cabinet.

https://www.stationhill.co.uk/

I did go and have a good look around when the new station was finished.

They have a covered tunnel under the station that could have only been designed by someone who did not read Readings court pages,

[adarmo]

4 hours ago, Freki said:

Reading and its over supply of office building pre covid, now that people don't really want to go to an office block anymore I wonder what will happen to all of those glass boxes. 

Not sure, my guess is they'll stay as offices. Some of the business parks on the outskirts may well be converted to light warehousing though right now that's in demand. 

Most of the office space occupied pre covid is still under lease so either people are exercising break clauses or defaulting but most are paying the rent. 

[adarmo]

7 hours ago, spyguy said:

There's a Reading post in the SE forum.

Reading has good rail connections, being one of the largest railway interconnects in the South.

Its roads, however good they look on paper, are shit - congestion is chronic and can no longer be avoided by travelling earlier or later.

And, no, thats not bust making  money, its more busy desperate staying afloat.

From the comments:

 

Aware of that, but when I first posted this I though London had been dropped but going through it was a tier two category. 

The roads are congested for sure but that's really down to it being popular for employment AND a lack of willingness of Oxfordshire to recognise that the motorcar was invented over a century ago. Maybe they think it's just phase. Besides, Bristol is far, far worse. Guildford is also terrible. 

Not sure why the comments are relevant, everyone loves to slag of Reading, even me but comments in the local rag are not the research by the FDI to which I was drawing attention. 

How did you managed to get on to Slough lol?

[adarmo]

On 24/08/2020 at 10:45, msi said:

Reading is an overpriced sh*thole with unusually good rail and road links. Friendly and proud villages caught up in urban sprawl and gentrification

Reading used to be so bad that people would head over to Slough for a night out! Not the case today. West Reading and Oxford Road is still dodgy but the centre is decent. I would actually live there if I still worked in the centre. 

What towns (the size of Reading) would you say are not sh*t holes?

[Freki]

9 minutes ago, adarmo said:

Not sure, my guess is they'll stay as offices. Some of the business parks on the outskirts may well be converted to light warehousing though right now that's in demand. 

Most of the office space occupied pre covid is still under lease so either people are exercising break clauses or defaulting but most are paying the rent. 

The issue is that so many offices in the centre are just empty. Forbury Road, there is a large building hosting KPMG on the last 2 floors. But all the rest is empty. On the other side of Forbury Gardens, above the Carluccio's it is empty. Next to the train station, you have the soon to be vacated Thames Water HQ. And on the redevelopment on the south side of the train station, you have plenty of office spaces looking for tenants. I really wonder how come any developer think it is a good idea to pile more offices when vacancies seem so high already. Worst part is that retrofitting some of those blocks feel near impossible with no walls and impossible to open windows.

[adarmo]

5 minutes ago, Freki said:

The issue is that so many offices in the centre are just empty. Forbury Road, there is a large building hosting KPMG on the last 2 floors. But all the rest is empty. On the other side of Forbury Gardens, above the Carluccio's it is empty. Next to the train station, you have the soon to be vacated Thames Water HQ. And on the redevelopment on the south side of the train station, you have plenty of office spaces looking for tenants. I really wonder how come any developer think it is a good idea to pile more offices when vacancies seem so high already. Worst part is that retrofitting some of those blocks feel near impossible with no walls and impossible to open windows.

Fair comments, I used to work in one of those buildings you mention and it was full at that time. Carlo's closed but that was the company failing - it never was great anyway, just a place for a coffee and a drink after work really. 

KPMG have taken two floors in 2 Forbury Place, the identical building next door was fully occupied by SSE. The taller building on the bridge was PWC I think. 

The Blade was landmark development completed just for the property crash I think, it had space for a long time but I think that is the nature of new developments. My current office is outside of Reading but very modern and the building was partially empty for a time. The block next door was totally empty for a couple of years but is now fully occupied. 

They are building tonnes of flats in the centre too so perhaps the increase in population would soak up some of that office space? Or the office space would be converted. Contrary to popular belief that Reading is a London satellite the town seeing net inward commuting during normal working conditions. 

 

[markyh]

42 minutes ago, adarmo said:

Reading used to be so bad that people would head over to Slough for a night out! Not the case today. West Reading and Oxford Road is still dodgy but the centre is decent. I would actually live there if I still worked in the centre. 

What towns (the size of Reading) would you say are not sh*t holes?

None. They all let their none white population % get way to high and it ruins the town.  This is why we left Aylesbury after 25 years. Thankfully our current town which predates to doomsday book to the 7th century or before is still smallish and 98% White British.

You know your town is good if you can via any darkskinned or burka's with suspicion as they are such rare sightings. My South African wife is much happier here than in Aylesbury. 

[adarmo]

1 minute ago, markyh said:

None. They all let their none white population % get way to high and it ruins the town.  This is why we left Aylesbury after 25 years. Thankfully our current town which predates to doomsday book to the 7th century or before is still smallish and 98% White British.

You know your town is good if you can via any darkskinned or burka's with suspicion as they are such rare sightings. My South African wife is much happier here than in Aylesbury. 

WTAF!?

[spyguy]

59 minutes ago, adarmo said:

Reading used to be so bad that people would head over to Slough for a night out! Not the case today. West Reading and Oxford Road is still dodgy but the centre is decent. I would actually live there if I still worked in the centre. 

What towns (the size of Reading) would you say are not sh*t holes?

No. Reading has always had bars n what not.

Its losing its clubs at a rapid rate. Either to housing (afterdark ) or standby (take your pick)

[Hullabaloo82]

4 minutes ago, adarmo said:

WTAF!?

My thoughts exactly. I mean, seen the guy shilling for Bitcoin in the other thread and he is an hpc regular so 50% chance of having some unpleasant views on race at least but still surprising to see someone be quite so blatant about it.

Also, the old classic "all the immigrants are the problem but my South African wife is fine". 

[spyguy]

24 minutes ago, adarmo said:

Fair comments, I used to work in one of those buildings you mention and it was full at that time. Carlo's closed but that was the company failing - it never was great anyway, just a place for a coffee and a drink after work really. 

KPMG have taken two floors in 2 Forbury Place, the identical building next door was fully occupied by SSE. The taller building on the bridge was PWC I think. 

The Blade was landmark development completed just for the property crash I think, it had space for a long time but I think that is the nature of new developments. My current office is outside of Reading but very modern and the building was partially empty for a time. The block next door was totally empty for a couple of years but is now fully occupied. 

They are building tonnes of flats in the centre too so perhaps the increase in population would soak up some of that office space? Or the office space would be converted. Contrary to popular belief that Reading is a London satellite the town seeing net inward commuting during normal working conditions. 

 

I doubt that.

The pre 9 trains to London are packed. The ones back to Rdhg are mainly air.

[hayder]

12 minutes ago, adarmo said:

WTAF!?

 

[markyh]

26 minutes ago, Hullabaloo82 said:

My thoughts exactly. I mean, seen the guy shilling for Bitcoin in the other thread and he is an hpc regular so 50% chance of having some unpleasant views on race at least but still surprising to see someone be quite so blatant about it.

Also, the old classic "all the immigrants are the problem but my South African wife is fine". 

Oh yes she's fine, ex-model, has a British passport and in the top 10% of earners in the UK, so her taxes pay for all the spongers and take take take immigrants. "Shilling Bitcoin" , that i take offence too, the rest is pretty much spot on. lol. 

[Locke]

43 minutes ago, adarmo said:

WTAF!?

I take it you haven't met many Afrikaners

[kzb]

I've only been to Reading twice.  Once in the mid-1980's and again about 2-3 years ago.

What a difference 30-odd years made.  Back in 1980's Reading was a bit of a poor do compared with say Preston.  It certainly wasn't any better and probably no bigger either.

Fast forward 30-odd years and Reading has grown enormously.  It looks like a major city.

[ubuntu]

The uni is pretty good aside from offering specialised real estate surveying courses

[ubuntu]

22 minutes ago, Locke said:

I take it you haven't met many Afrikaners

https://dai.ly/x2urkuf

Edited August 25, 2020 by ubuntu

[househunter123]

48 minutes ago, markyh said:

Oh yes she's fine, ex-model, has a British passport and in the top 10% of earners in the UK, so her taxes pay for all the spongers and take take take immigrants. "Shilling Bitcoin" , that i take offence too, the rest is pretty much spot on. lol. 

ooh, Saffers, and their views on multiculturalism. What's she reading? Apartheid DIY?

[hotblack42]

1 hour ago, markyh said:

You know your town is good if you can via any darkskinned or burka's with suspicion as they are such rare sightings. My South African wife is much happier here than in Aylesbury. 

Illiterate laughing stock poster. He's Probably making a lot of stuff up.

I divide my time between London & Bognor Regis.   Boggers is 98% white - it's the worst thing about the place & I include the grubby, dowdy town centre in that assessment.

Fortunately thick, fat retired whites & predatory white benefit tourist chavs don't like the quiet stretches of beach we frequent.  No junk food or repellent lager..

I'm white BTW.  It's an attribute.  That's all.