Over here

From Hollywood to housebuilding

Housebuilders are about to get a TV channel. I can reveal that Stewart Roberts, a former director at Bryant Homes, will launch Hometime TV in the spring. The idea is that housebuilders will showcase their wares on the interactive channel for buyers to peruse. Roberts’ business partner, Trevor Bedford, came up with the format while working as a producer in the US. Among Bedford’s credits is Jackass: The Movie (in case you were doubting that a housebuilding channel would be anything but a laugh a minute).

The highly collectable Idaho Statesman

Local journalism is a thankless task. Take the Idaho Statesman for example. Since revealing to the world what former Olympic Delivery Authority chairman Jack Lemley really thought about the 2012 Olympics, the paper seems to have won more ridicule than praise. At last week’s grilling of ODA heads David Higgins and Roy McNulty, London assembly members joked that they had learned the news of Lemley’s outburst from “a local rag with a circulation of about five”.

Oh brother, where wert thou?

There was one notable absentee from the guest list at Crest Nicholson’s Dartmouth House bash to launch its regeneration division last week: John Callcutt, the firm’serstwhile chief executive, and now English Partnerships’ head honcho. The oversight was rectified by brother Paul, the company’s land director, who texted his sibling to assure him that he was welcome to turn up whenever he wanted.

Cleanliness next to Selfridges

Why spend a penny when you can part with a fiver instead? That seems to be the concept behind WC1, the world’s first ever ladies-only ultra-luxurious powder room, loo and retail retreat. Designed by consultant Marchhare, guests can pay a fiver to be treated to deep seating, large mirrors, “ambient lounge music” and air-conditioned loo cubicles that are big enough to comfortably change from a suit to an evening dress (and are sterilised after every visit). Billed as a “revival of the old Victorian powder room concept”, the boutique is to be found on London’s Oxford Street opposite Selfridges and has been created with “impeccable cleanliness” and “the pursuit of beauty” in mind. Like most of Oxford Street in that respect, then.

A lunch to be proud of

I would like to congratulate developer Derwent Valley, which has managed to raise £285,000 to go towards the £2m cost of a specialist oncology unit for teenagers with cancer at Birmingham children’s hospital. A charity lunch held at the Savoy hotel in central London, on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust was attended by more than 450 people from across the property industry, including developers, builders, architects, agents, surveyors and lawyers. An auction, led by Richard Auterac of Jones Lang LaSalle, was also held at the event and managed to raise £100,000.

Our boys go in

It’s not often that my colleagues wake up covered in bruises after a mid-week social event but that was the case last week after Building’s paintball challenge with British Gypsum in London Docklands. It may only be yellow paint but when it’s fired at point blank range from a semi-automatic gun it don’t ‘arf hurt. Building’s troops’ pride also took a battering. Although battles were gained, it was sharp shooting by British Gypsum director Paul Smith and his team that ultimately won the war.