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Feeling the heat

Spare a thought for politicians in pre-local election campaigning mode. On the hottest April day for 70 years, Lib Dem leader Vince Cable criss-crossed the capital by Tube to squeeze in an appearance at the Construction Products Association鈥檚 annual bash in Park Lane. After some side-swipes at Brexit and Help to Buy, he had just enough time for a few selfies with admiring product manufacturers before hot-footing it up to Chesterfield for the BBC鈥檚 Question Time. But the ex-business secretary has a somewhat downbeat assessment of his party鈥檚 prospects at the ballot box next month. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to make spectacular progress 鈥� we鈥檙e looking for steady improvements,鈥� he tells one of my hacks. A sentiment familiar to many in the business of forecasting construction鈥檚 performance this year, no doubt.

On the never-never

Remember the Barratt ads with that chap in the helicopter? Most of you who are of a certain age probably do, so in that sense they did their job. The housebuilder鈥檚 chief executive, David Thomas, reminds a colleague of mine that one of the ads the firm ran back then in the 1970s advertised homes to buy for 拢9 a week. 鈥淭hat was in the days when you could advertise the cost of a house on a pounds per week basis,鈥� he says. The firm鈥檚 most expensive ongoing home is an 拢8m residence near Tower Bridge in London, which on the pounds per week basis would take 888,888 weeks to pay for.

Past perfect

Thomas also mentioned that he was at a Home Builders Federation policy conference a few weeks ago, where one of the speakers was Redrow founder Steve Morgan. Morgan, who set up the business back in 1982, revealed that in the first year of trading he completed just 50 homes but by five years later completions had shot up to 1,050. Thomas was incredulous. 鈥淣ot one of the sites he bought took him more than eight weeks of planning,鈥� he says, wistfully. 鈥淲e can be 70 weeks in planning now.鈥� I think this goes to show that progress isn鈥檛 all that it鈥檚 cracked up to be.

Playing it safe

Many call construction a dangerous business, but it turns out Flan McNamara鈥檚 son has chosen an even trickier game for himself. Earlier this month one of my hacks was speaking with this week鈥檚 cover star, who told her that while his son Daniel had not followed him into the construction game, he鈥檇 chosen a risky business of his own. 鈥淗e had a go at construction but he didn鈥檛 really like it; he likes life too much,鈥� McNamara said. 鈥淒aniel is a skateboarder.鈥� Looks like taking chances runs in the family.

Love and money

An investor in Metro Bank has cried foul over payments made by the high-street financial retailer to a US firm of architects run by the wife of the bank鈥檚 chairman, Vernon Hill. Royal London Asset Management, which owns 0.44% of the bank, raised the issue of payments totalling 拢21m to New Jersey-based InterArch, run by Shirley Hill, for design and branding services. Metro said the payments were 鈥渁rm鈥檚 length鈥� and represented a good deal compared with other lenders. But Royal London suggested the bank ought to pay 鈥渆specially close attention to related party transactions鈥�. InterArch鈥檚 corporate blurb reveals it 鈥渦ses design as a competitive weapon鈥� but there鈥檚 no mention of some of its, er, 鈥渃onnections鈥�.