Read all about it

Hidden agenda

I notice that Gareth Blacker, the London Development Agency director, was suspended last week after a £60m overspend on land for the Olympic Games. This raised questions in some areas about the future of the agency should the Tories win the next election. Seasoned politicos wonder why the Greater London Authority – headed by Tory mayor Boris Johnson – seems so keen to highlight its budget problems before the report on what went wrong is published. Surely it can’t be because parking the blame for problems at the agency’s door will make axing it next year more palatable?

All in good time

Former housing minister Nick Raynsford had his moment under the Sunday Telegraph’s cruel searchlight last week when the paper took issue with the £148,000 a year he earns from outside interests (er, including his fee as a Building columnist …). Still, it seems it’s not just Raynsford who has trouble balancing responsibilities. Word reaches me that he has only just received a reply to a letter sent two months ago to Lord Mandelson, which asked that he meet with construction figures to discuss ways the government could help ease recession. The response? Nothing until the autumn …

Below the parapet

It’s not only the right honourable Nick having trouble meeting the government. At a regeneration conference put on by the British Property Federation and the Smith Institute this week, speakers included Stewart Jackson, the shadow regeneration minister, and his Lib Dem counterpart. But minister was there none. Although former junior housing minister Iain Wright had agreed to attend, replacement Ian Austin simply couldn’t find the time. Nor, despite negotiation, could anybody else from the communities department. With the government as unpopular as it is, maybe it’s not surprising they’re keeping their heads down.

Taylor Woodrow, to you

Some may recall the uproar last September when Vinci bought Taylor Woodrow and made it clear it wouldn’t use the red “tug-of-war” logo. Further outrage followed when Vinci announced that one of the few instantly recognisable brands in the industry, the Taylor Woodrow name, would also have to go. It is pleasing to hear, then, that the old way lives on in some quarters – such as Tesco and BAA. It seems that Vinci was so keen not to spook its two big-spending clients that it made an exception and kept the reassuringly familiar brand in its dealings with them. Not for the first time, it’s clear that what Tesco and BAA want, they get.

Kerslakes, Kerslakes everywhere

Is the Kerslake clan taking over renewal nationwide? With Sir Bob at the Homes and Communities Agency and his sister, Ros, manning the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, Building was concerned to hear that the HCA’s new head of communication was one Keith Kerslake. But the agency is no haven for nepotism. Keith is “no relation at all” to Sir Bob, one of his press entourage assures me. Must just be a lucky name.

Tat with your toast?

There is no accounting for taste. Take Paul Everall, chief executive of Local Authority Building Control and one of the fathers of our hallowed Building Regulations. One might picture such a gentleman seated at breakfast, leafing through – besides this esteemed journal – a copy of the Times, or perhaps the latest missive on Part L. Not so.

Mr Everall’s publication of choice is, in fact, the free London Paper, whose celebrity-strewn pages litter the capital’s tube trains. The must-read section? Why, page 18-19 which, for the uninitiated, is where you’ll read the latest “news” of Kate Moss and Jodie Marsh. His story of the moment? Jordan and Pete’s break up, of course …