12 January 2012

British Land the Only Landlord to Achieve Platinum Standard at PMA Audits

British Land has scored extremely highly in this year's independent Property Managers Association (PMA) retail centre management and accounting standards audit with its properties achieving five gold and two platinum awards. All audited properties scored 91% or above and British Land was the only landlord to achieve a platinum award.

The PMA, represented by 110 of the UK's leading retailers, introduced the quality assurance programme in 2009 to monitor landlord and managing agent compliance with the RICS Service Charge Code. The platinum award is given in exceptional circumstances to recognise and reward outstanding service charge management standards and going the extra mile for retailers.

John Gray, Service Charge Representative for PMA, said: "British Land is a true exemplar of RICS Service Charge Code compliance and service delivery excellence. The company has stood out for the third year running for its high standard of accounting and transparency. The PMA congratulates British Land and its agents on another exceptionally strong performance."

David Tudor-Morgan, Director of Retail Property Management for British Land, commented: "As the UK's largest retail landlord, we believe in leading from the front and by example when it comes to efficient property management that meets and exceeds retailers' expectations.

"We are naturally delighted to have independent corroboration that we are effectively controlling costs, being transparent and delivering for retailers. Together with our managing agents, we will continue our efforts by utilising smart procurement, efficient management and creative thinking."

The properties the PMA selected to be audited were:

Property	Managing Agent	PMA Award
Forster Square Shopping Park, Bradford	Savills	Platinum
Glasgow Fort Shopping Park	Montagu Evans	Gold
Kingston Centre, Milton Keynes	GVA	Gold
New Mersey Shopping Park, Liverpool	Savills	Platinum
Springfield Retail Park, Elgin	Colliers International	Gold
Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Rotherhithe	Munroe K	Gold
Tollgate Centre, Colchester	Munroe K	Gold

To date British Land has been awarded six platinum and 17 gold awards. The company was the first landlord to achieve platinum standard for Broughton Shopping Park near Chester in 2010. The other British Land properties that have achieved the platinum award are Parkgate Shopping Park in Rotherham, Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield and Teesside Shopping Park in Stockton-on-Tees.

Enquiries:

British Land:

Media    

Jackie Whitaker, British Land                     020 7467 3449
Nick Thornton, Klein O'Rorke                     020 7101 7438

Notes to Editors

About British Land
British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.6 billion (British Land share £10.2 billion), as valued at 30 September 2011. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited by over 250 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98% and average lease length to first break of 12 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 62% of our portfolio, over 80% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites. Comprising around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 91 retail warehouse properties, 99 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores, the retail portfolio is generally modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Active asset management delivers attractive space to both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 33% of the portfolio (rising to an estimated 37% on completion of current developments) with 7 million sq ft of office space including Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We are investing £1.1 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.2 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate aim of building the best REIT in Europe.