COLD IS GOLD × MOTHBALL
COPYWRITING PROPOSAL · JULY 2026

Your cold email sequence.

What we can personalise on, the value proposition, the call to action, and the three emails that will go to commercial property owners across England. Validate each section directly in this document.

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Proposal
What you are validating The prospects What we personalise on Value proposition Call to action The three emails Next steps Your validation
01 / What you are validating

Your campaign, section by section

We took ten real commercial property owners in England, looked for what public sources say about their empty space, and built the sequence around the signals we can find again and again across a full list. Everything you read here is sourced. Nothing is invented.

This document sets out how we understand your offer, the prospects we looked at, the signals we can personalise on, the call to action and the three emails. Validate or comment on each section, and tell us where we have got you wrong.

How to give feedback

At the bottom of each section you have three options: mark it as good, flag it as needing work, or leave a comment in your own words.

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02 / The prospects we looked at

10 owners, checked one by one

These are real commercial property owners in England, found and documented entirely from public sources, the same way we will build the full list. They run from the best documented case down to one where we deliberately found nothing.

Click any owner to see what we found and where it came from. This is exactly what feeds the personalised lines in the emails.

1
Regional REIT
Stephen Inglis · CEO of the asset manager (London & Scottish Property Investment Management)
Listed REIT holding regional offices and light industrial across England, portfolio valued at 555m pounds.
Richest case: a published figure, dated and hard to argue with
What they own

Regional office and light industrial assets across England, asset managed by London & Scottish Property Investment Management.

Why they are a target

Occupancy is published twice a year, empty space sits at portfolio scale, and the bill lands on the owner. The clearest possible fit.

Evidence of empty space

EPRA occupancy ended 2025 at 75.9%, down on the year, attributed to lease breaks and disposals. Source: 2025 full year results.

Where and how big

England, 555m pounds portfolio

2
CLS Holdings plc
Fredrik Widlund · Chief Executive Officer
Listed property company, offices in London and the South East.
A building we can name, and the month it emptied
What they own

Office buildings across London and the South East, held long term and actively refurbished.

Why they are a target

A whole building emptying at once is the moment the empty rates bill becomes impossible to ignore.

Evidence of empty space

UK vacancy rose to 15.1% by mid-2025, mainly because every lease at New Printing House Square expired in June 2025. Source: 2025 half year report.

Where and how big

London and South East

3
Real Estate Investors plc
Paul Bassi CBE · Chief Executive Officer
Birmingham based REIT, 34 assets, 950,423 sq ft, mixed use across the Midlands.
What they own

A mixed use Midlands portfolio, offices, retail and leisure, held through a three year sell down programme.

Why they are a target

Tenant failures leave units empty at short notice, and a sell down means assets sitting vacant while they are marketed.

Evidence of empty space

Occupancy fell to 78.69% at the end of 2025 from 82.04%, after lease events and tenant CVAs including River Island. Source: January 2026 trading update.

Where and how big

Midlands, 34 assets

4
Helical plc
· Chief Executive (name to confirm at list stage)
Listed London office developer and investor.
What they own

London offices, developed and refurbished, with a pipeline of buildings coming back to the market.

Why they are a target

A development pipeline means completed space waiting to let, which is exactly when full rates start.

Evidence of empty space

Vacancy on completed assets of 22.4% at 30 September 2025, up from 21.3% in March. Source: half year results to 30 September 2025.

Where and how big

London

5
Unex Group
· Director or asset manager (to identify)
Private property group based in Newmarket, Suffolk.
Private owner, no published figures, but a building we can name
What they own

Commercial property including Waterloo House in Ipswich, the four storey former Debenhams.

Why they are a target

A large town centre building empty for years is the single most expensive kind of vacancy there is.

Evidence of empty space

Waterloo House has been empty since 2021, and the local council has publicly called the building a blight on the town. Source: BBC coverage.

Where and how big

Suffolk, town centre retail

6
Picton Property Income
· Chief Executive (name to confirm at list stage)
Listed REIT, 699m pounds across 46 assets, two thirds industrial.
What they own

Industrial estates, offices and retail warehousing across the UK.

Why they are a target

Industrial units handed back mid year sit empty while they are re-let, and industrial relief runs out after six months.

Evidence of empty space

Occupancy of 83% at 31 March 2026, after two significant industrial lease events in the second half. Source: annual results to 31 March 2026.

Where and how big

UK wide, 46 assets

7
Towngate PLC
· Managing director or estates manager (to identify)
Private family owned industrial landlord across Yorkshire and the North West.
Private owner: the vacancy is visible because they are advertising it
What they own

Industrial units and warehouses from 3,000 to 300,000 sq ft, largely in Leeds, Wakefield and Brighouse.

Why they are a target

They market their own vacancies publicly, so we can see what is empty without asking anyone.

Evidence of empty space

Units openly advertised to let on their own website, including 17,000 sq ft at Cross Green in Leeds. Source: their property listings.

Where and how big

Yorkshire and North West

8
Chancerygate
· Asset management director (to identify)
Industrial developer and asset manager, around 600m pounds under management.
What they own

Speculative multi unit industrial schemes, with a pipeline running from the south coast up to Scotland.

Why they are a target

Speculative development produces empty units by design: the rates clock starts the day a unit completes, months before it lets.

Evidence of empty space

Speculative schemes under construction from Bournemouth up to Warrington, and completed phases still part let. Source: their development pages.

Where and how big

England wide pipeline

9
Town Centre Securities
· Executive chairman or property director (to confirm)
Listed property company, 89% of assets in Leeds and Manchester.
To check against your existing relationships before any send
What they own

Retail, offices, car parks and hotels concentrated in Leeds and Manchester.

Why they are a target

Voids are low but never zero, and in a concentrated portfolio each empty unit is visible.

Evidence of empty space

Voids of 7.4% for the year to 30 June 2025, improved on the previous year. Source: FY25 results.

Where and how big

Leeds and Manchester

10
Evans Property Group
· Director or asset manager (to identify)
Long established private investor and developer based in Leeds.
Floor case, on purpose: if the sequence works here, it works on your whole list
What they own

Offices, industrial and retail held long term across Yorkshire, plus a development land bank.

Why they are a target

A long term holder of mixed commercial property will always have something standing empty somewhere.

Evidence of empty space

No public vacancy figure at all. This is the floor case: we know what they own, and nothing more.

Where and how big

Yorkshire

Four calls are yours to make on targeting, and we have not made them for you. One: managing agents and rating surveyors influence what happens to a building, so do they get their own sequence, or stay out of the cold campaign altogether? Two: occupiers sitting on space they no longer use also carry the empty rates, so are they in or out? Three: councils that own former department stores pay it too, and we have left them out by default. Four, and we need this one before a single email goes out: the list of your existing clients and relationships to exclude. Your own test search already surfaced current clients, so we would rather have your list than guess.
03 / What we can personalise on

4 signals, in cascade

For each owner we look for four things, in order of value. The first one is a bonus when it exists. The last one is always there, and the whole sequence is built so that it still works with nothing but that.

01 · A building we can name, or a piece of news

Level
Bonus, when it exists
Where it comes from
Press, council coverage, their own announcements
How often we find it
20 to 30% (estimate, to confirm on the full list)
Unex Group
What we found: Waterloo House in Ipswich, the former Debenhams, empty since 2021
opens on that building by name, the one that made us write
CLS Holdings
What we found: every lease at New Printing House Square expired in June 2025
opens on the building that emptied, and the month it happened

02 · A published occupancy figure

Level
Core signal on listed owners
Where it comes from
Annual and half year results
How often we find it
Close to 100% on listed owners
Regional REIT
What we found: EPRA occupancy 75.9% at the end of 2025, down on the year
opens on the figure and where we read it
Real Estate Investors
What we found: occupancy down to 78.69% after tenant CVAs
opens on what pulled the occupancy down
Helical
What we found: 22.4% vacancy on completed assets at 30 September 2025
opens on the vacancy carried on completed buildings

03 · Space they are openly marketing to let

Level
Core signal on private owners
Where it comes from
Their own website, commercial property portals
How often we find it
60 to 70% on private owners (estimate)
Towngate PLC
What we found: 17,000 sq ft advertised at Cross Green, Leeds
opens on the units they are marketing, naming the place
Chancerygate
What we found: speculative schemes from Bournemouth up to Warrington
opens on where they are building, not on what they do

04 · What they own and where

Level
Floor, available on everyone
Where it comes from
Their website, Companies House, property listings
How often we find it
100%
Evans Property Group
What we found: offices, industrial and retail held across Yorkshire
opens on their actual mix of assets and their actual region
Picton Property Income
What we found: industrial, offices and retail warehousing across the UK
opens on the kind of space they hold and the relief clock that goes with it
Two rules we hold to. We never claim a building is empty unless a public source says so: we say what we saw, dated, and let the owner correct us. And every fact is checked again mechanically the week we send, because a vacancy can be filled between now and September. If a fact no longer holds, that prospect drops down a level rather than going out with something false in the first line.
04 / Value proposition

The angle: their empty space and the bill it carries, never a defence of the law

Every email opens on their building, their portfolio, their empty floor. The mechanism comes second, in two sentences, as the answer to that bill. The tone is peer to peer, one property person to another, with no sales language and no company presentation. Your history stays out of the emails, in line with what Jeremy said in the meeting: the harder you justify it, the worse it reads.

3 things the sequence puts in front of an owner, each one answering something that actually bothers them:

You keep more of it

65 to 75% of the bill stays with you, against about half at best on the schemes most owners use today.

the biggest bill nobody questions

Built for the law as it stands now

The occupier has to get a real commercial benefit from the building. Ours does, it trades from there.

schemes written before the ruling

Turnkey, and the building stays the building

The lease does the work. No works, no transformation, nothing for the owner to manage.

losing control of an asset they are still marketing
Central message: your empty space is billed at full rates, our tenant company takes a lease and genuinely trades from it, you keep 65 to 75% of what you would otherwise pay, and the process was built after the Supreme Court ruling rather than before it.
05 / Call to action

The gift: a free one page comparison on one of their buildings

Rather than asking for a meeting, the emails offer something concrete that a competitor would charge for. They send one rates demand, you send back one page: what that building costs them today, and what they would keep with you. Free either way, whether they ever become a client or not.

One rates demand in, one page out

They send the demand for a single empty building. You return a one page comparison, today's cost against what they would keep.

No strings, and no need for them to open up

If they name their current provider, the comparison is exact. If they will not, you work from what you already know of market pricing. Either way they get the page.

A closed question, no diary

No meeting request, no calendar link, no price anywhere in the emails. One question they can answer yes or no in a single line.

The wording in email 1: "If you send me the rates demand for one empty building, we'll send you back a one-page comparison of what it costs you today and what you'd keep with us. Takes us a day, costs you nothing, whether we ever work together or not." Two things to confirm: whether a day is realistic, and who produces the page. We also need one anonymised example of it, because email 3 offers to send exactly that.
06 / The three emails

The heart of the campaign

The three emails go to the same person, a few days and then a few weeks apart, under one subject line so they stay in the same thread. Each one comes from a different angle: the bill in email 1, the ground shifting under the market in email 2, the timing in email 3. Every email opens on something specific to that owner, including the follow-ups.

For each email you get the template, with the parts written per prospect highlighted, then examples filled in on the real owners from section 02. Click an example to open it.

07 / Next steps

What happens once you have validated

1
You validate this document
Section by section, validate or tell us what to rework. We adjust the copy on your feedback.
2
We build the full list
Early August. Listed owners, private property companies, and council lists of empty commercial units. You see a sample before we extract everything.
3
We write the emails across the list
Every opening line comes from a sourced fact, checked again the week we send, and dropped down a level rather than sent with anything unverified.
4
Launch
Mid September, when your audience is back and working through the pile that built up over the summer. The campaign is loaded and you switch it on.
Five things we need from you to move. One: which savings figure to use, since your site says 65 to 75% and the meeting said 70 to 80%. Two: whether we can write that the usual schemes manage about half at best. Three: which proofs from your history we may put in writing, the years since 2008, the hundreds of millions saved, the PLC clients, the wins in court. Four: who sends, Jeremy or Nick, since the mailboxes are set up under Jeremy today. Five: the material you offered in the meeting, your previous cold emails, the newsletters, and the sales proposition Nick was reworking.
08 / Your validation

Ready to send your feedback?

Here is where you have got to on each section. Once you have had your say on them, you can send the whole lot over in one go.

Your progress

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Prospects
Signals
Value proposition
Call to action
Email 1
Email 2
Email 3

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