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Shaftesbury reports West End trading ‘largely unaffected’ by slowing economy: Shaftesbury, which is landlord to 282 pubs, restaurants and cafes in the West End, has reported its tenants are seeing resilient trading growth and has been “largely unaffected” by the slowing economy. The company saw net property income was up 5% to £88.3m for the year ending 30 September 2017. It stated: “Occupier demand remains healthy and typical-sized space is letting well. We have made good progress with our three larger schemes – 46% of completed space is now let or under offer.” Chief executive Brian Bickell said: “It is pleasing to report another year of good progress and strong results, against a backdrop of economic uncertainty. The broad economic base of the West End, and its enduring global appeal to visitors and businesses, underpin its resilience and long-term prospects, providing a considerable degree of protection against national economic headwinds. This has been evident in the strength of our performance through different business cycles and operating environments in our 31-year history. Underwritten by the unique features of the West End, we are confident our strategy will continue our long record of growing our exceptional portfolio’s income and value, and, in turn, the returns we deliver to our shareholders.” He added: “In our long experience, the breadth of the West End’s economy provides considerable protection from the cyclicality and headwinds experienced by the UK national economy. Over the year, business and consumer confidence has begun to come under pressure, and growth in the national economy is slowing. However, conditions in the West End have so far largely been unaffected. In particular, weakness in sterling has provided a boost to the spending power of international visitors as well as increasing visitor numbers. Our restaurants, cafés, bars and shops are reporting resilient trading growth, better enabling them to absorb upward pressures on operating costs currently faced by all businesses. Demand for the smaller accommodation that traditionally we offer is healthy. Lettings, lease renewals and rent reviews are being concluded on terms in line with our expectations, and vacancy levels have remained in line with our long-term trend of 3%, or less, of portfolio ERV. We are making good progress at our three larger schemes. 46% by ERV of the completed space is now either let or under offer and marketing of the remaining space continues. This larger space we are offering requires occupiers to invest significant sums in fit-out and take on substantial rental commitments and we expect letting periods to be longer than for smaller space. Macro-economic uncertainties are now showing signs of slowing potential occupiers’ decision-making processes. We shall be patient in selecting occupiers that match our long-term aspirations. The widely reported increase in national business rates took effect in April 2017. As we anticipated, average increases for our occupiers were in the range of 30% to 40%, with a large number of our smaller tenants able to benefit from a four-year transition period. Occupiers of large space on streets where rental levels are above our average have seen greater increases, and only limited transition provisions. Despite these unwelcome increases in operating costs for our tenants, we have not seen any direct impact on occupancy levels or interest in leasing space. During the year, we concluded £31.1m of leasing transactions, achieving rents for commercial space 6.7% above ERV at the previous year end. This is not only converting an element of our reversionary potential in to contracted income, but it also provides valuable evidence to increase rental tones and grow income from our adjacent and nearby buildings.” Shaftesbury has also announced the appointment of Richard Akers to the board as a non-executive director with immediate effect.