Candy figures will be sugar sweet
Nick and Christian Candy are set to confound their critics next week, we hear. This will be done by publishing the results of their Guernsey-based CPC group for the first time.
There has been a lot of loose talk that the young developers – who are no longer working on the NoHo site in the West End, and who have sold their equity stake in Chelsea Barracks – might be struggling.
This has been underlined by news from California, where banks appear to be getting anxious about the security of their loan on the brothers’ $500m purchase of a site on Rodeo Drive, Beverley Hills.
We gather the numbers will put fears to rest.
Darling’s ‘property’ is not likely to be vacant
Chancellor Alistair Darling had rating experts scratching their heads with the claim in hispre-Budget report that 70% of property would benefit from empty rates relief. Could there have been some sleight of hand by the chancellor?
Sort of. The 70% includes “property” such as ATMs and advertising hoardings, none of which are likely to be found empty, no matter how bad the downturn.
Traffic chaos goes full circle in Southwark
Lend Lease and Southwark council are once again being driven round the twist by Elephant & Castle’s roundabout.
In September, EG revealed that London mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London had thrown the £1.5bn regeneration of the area into disarray by refusing to back a major overhaul of the area’s southern roundabout – five years after negotiations between the council and TfL had begun.
Southwark and development partner Lend Lease had been expecting to receive a sign-off for £600,000 of mayoral funding for the removal of the roundabout. However, Kulveer Ranger, Johnson’s director for transport policy, decided the removal would badly affect traffic flow.
Since then, TfL, Southwark and Lend Lease have been closing in on alternative proposals. But news reaches us that TfL has now decided that these plans do not meet its health and safety standards.
There is great hope that a solution acceptable to all parties will be reached soon. However, a source said: “It would be just like TfL to take five years to decide not to do anything about one of the worst transport black spots in London.”
SEGRO staff: latest victims of dining cuts
More distressing evidence of the credit crunch’s impact on the property world’s dining habits comes from Slough.
SEGRO is to close the fully subsidised restaurant at its estate after deciding that the rumoured £500,000 pa cost is just too much to stomach.
Unsurprisingly, SEGRO staff have found the news difficult to digest. They have got used to bringing clients from all over the group’s UK estate to hold “meetings” at the restaurant while feasting on the free food.
Ghost of Nelson Bakewell in party mood
Even with Christmas looming, finding an excuse for a party in the current climate might cause consternation for some. But not for a number of ex-employees of the agency-formerly-known-as-Nelson Bakewell.
An initial e-mail sent to 20 NB alumni snowballed to attract more than 150 keen attendees, prompting the organisers to undertake a quick rethink of the venue for what turned out to be a long evening session in the depths of Mayfair.
After such a success, there may now be thoughts of turning it into an annual affair.
TfL staff to Stratford? ‘Just a detail’, says Boris
Boris Johnson was in a particularly dithering mood this week when asked whether he was pushing disgruntled TfL staff to decamp from central London to salubrious Stratford – a move that would sweeten efforts to get the Australian developer to house the 2012 Olympics media centre on the site (15 November, p17).
“Ah, Estates Gazette,” the blond bombshell said. “We are looking at a variety of solutions that will enable us to deliver a wonderful Olympics in London in 2012. But I’m not going to get into details.”
Greetings to a friendly bank manager at RBS
As the world knows, bank chiefs are notoriously shy creatures. They never ever give interviews. They don’t like having their photographs taken. None appears voluntarily on TV.
The only time you see or hear them is when they are striding into No 10 for a bollocking, or being grilled on TV in front of a Commons select committee.
But guess who has just sent his contact details to EG – and presumably, a lot more media besides? That’s right, the former chief executive of British Land Stephen Hester, the new chief at RBS.
Boris lambasts homes for hobbits
London mayor Boris Johnson last week began a campaign for more space in social housing schemes, complaining that the capital’s residents were living in cramped conditions akin to the homes of hobbits.
Johnson, rather like an overgrown resident of Middle Earth himself, said it was a disgrace that the average floor area of a home in London was 830 sq ft. That compared with 2,220 sq ft in Australia, 1,170 sq ft in Germany and 947 sq ft in the Irish Republic, he said.
“What’s that all about?” he asked. “We’re not hobbits. I am not about building homes for hobbits,” he declared. “We are not getting any thinner. The houses need to be human-sized.”
