The Sunday Times 鈥榬evealed鈥� John Prescott Jr鈥檚 involvement in the housebuilding industry at the weekend. Is this another embarrassment for his dad?

I couldn鈥檛 resist smiling when I started to read my copy of The Sunday Times yesterday. 鈥淧rescott Jr profits from father鈥檚 land boom鈥� ran the front page headline. The story below told how our deputy prime minister鈥檚 son Jonathan had visited a 鈥楻iviera conference鈥� (that鈥檚 MIPIM to us), and has been 鈥榗ashing in on the housebuilding boom planned by his father鈥� (by working as a site finder for residential developers).

Most people in and around the housebuilding industry would hardly have spluttered over the muesli at that revelation. Young Prescott has kept a low profile from the media 鈥� rejecting my requests for interview over the past year, and I鈥檇 guess those of plenty of other journalists 鈥� but within the industry he seems to be almost as well known as his father. I鈥檝e seen his name in the signing-in book of developers鈥� offices and heard him talked about by housebuilders and consultants (including one who told me a story about a night on the tiles in Prescott Jr鈥檚 company that couldn鈥檛 possibly be repeated on a family website).

In its story The Sunday Times voices Conservative concerns that Prescott Sr鈥檚 decisions (as minister responsible for planning until the May reshuffle) could have had an impact on Prescott Jr鈥檚 business in buying sites without planning permission and benefiting from the uplift in land value once planning permission is granted. Whatever the truth of the matter one question remains: has the industry been so welcoming to Prescott Jr because they hoped that would happen? Or is he really just a very good site finder?

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