On the very day that Carillion entered into liquidation, word reached Diary that the construction industry has the second most unhappy workforce (the retail sector claimed top spot).
According to the Horrible Bosses study by Expert Market, 27% of construction workers hate their jobs.
Not only that, they number highly in the ranks of survey respondents who confessed to having imagined killing their bosses – of the one in 10 employees overall who admitted these murderous impulses, 22% happen to come from the construction industry.
One suspects that this week’s news won’t have made construction bosses any more popular.
Props to PropSki
Conditions for the 300 skiers who arrived in Tignes, France, on Saturday were optimal – plenty of snow fell in advance and there was sunshine peeking gloriously over the mountains.
That turned on Tuesday though, with 75 kph winds, a snow dump of more than half a metre and temperatures plummeting to -29C.
So what to do for the hundreds locked up inside? Yoga? A Monopoly tournament? Or perhaps the formation of a choreographed cabaret act to perform at the famous La Folie Douce once conditions become more bearable?
Whether on the slopes or not, there’s always ample opportunity for creativity at PropSki.
Trump this
The London Festival of Architecture and Wandsworth council launched a competition this week to improve a gateway to the Nine Elms regeneration area.
The winner, to be announced in May, will receive £20,000 to develop a design for the underpass beneath the Thessaly Road Railway Bridge.
Now, Diary understands this competition is long planned and in no way a response to Donald Trump’s refusal last week to visit the new home of the US embassy as it is in an “off location”.
But to get the competition off to a strong start we’re ready to reveal our entry: paint it orange and stick in a golf course. We will assume the cheque is in the post.
Sincerest form of flattery?
In this day and age, how do you know if you have really arrived? When someone makes a parody Twitter account of you, that’s how.
And , with remarkable haste, that’s what happened to new housing minister (at time of going to press) Dominic Raab.
But no sooner was the @demonicraab account (Diary sees what they did there) active, than it was suspended.
But nothing disappears from the internet, so fake Raab’s tweets are still out there on screen shots, including “Oh God. Housing!! What a dreary brief” and “Loads of insincere congratulations from the muesli munching brigades of ‘housing professionals’. Straight bat needed.”
The cricket reference was the clue for anyone fooled by the spoof – the real Raab’s Twitter makes quite clear he’s a boxing fan.
Loud and clear?
Savills’ big beasts took to the stage at London’s Royal Institution last week, calling the central London market for the year ahead.
Residential research director Lucian Cook used humour to predict that the resi market would post modest rises.
His commercial colleague Mat Oakley followed: “The worse the forecast, the funnier Lucian gets. If he comes on in a clown outfit next year it’s time to short London.”
Oakley’s been told the less confident he is, the louder he gets, and conceded that last year he must have been “pretty loud”. As for this year? Well, Diary heard him.
A question of substance
The ever entertaining Alan Carter, property analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, was slightly delayed in sending out his annual review of the market this year after his “And so to lunch…” missive was classified as “non-substantive” marketing material under the Markets In Financial Instruments Directive.
He was quick to see the bright side, interpreting it as “an insult, but a convenient one”. And, wrote: “In fact, to distance myself from ‘substantive research’ I have been encouraged to be even more flippant and irreverent. Give me enough rope and eventually I’ll hang myself.”
For the record, Alan, your insights will always be substantive to us.
To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@egi.co.uk or tweet @jessharrold or @estatesgazette
