The Budget confirmed the UK's growth rate is slowing but a visit to the annual international property and regeneration exhibition and conference, Mipim, in Cannes, suggested that business is still booming. The number of delegates, at 22,000, was up on last year and a straw poll at one packed investment session showed an overwhelming majority saying they intend to increase their investment in the UK next year. That can be only good news for the UK's local authorities, which over the next five years will increasingly rely on their revenue for a prosperous local business rate base.

Although London continues to be the magnet for investment, the UK's core and key cities are increasingly attractive to developers and their funding. Economic growth is expected to be over 15% in the next decade in towns and cities as diverse as Leicester, Ipswich, Plymouth, Bristol, Swansea, Derby, Newcastle and Sheffield and over 25% in Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes. Martin Towns, head of capital solutions at M&G Real Estate comments: ‘The UK real estate market is already enjoying strong occupier demand, creating attractive investment opportunities including in the regional markets outside London.'