August 2009 Archives

Although the weather was miserable and wet in Birmingham yesterday, a little ray of sunshine was starting to peek from behind the dark clouds of recession. While the general consensus was that the second half of this year is going to remain tough, there was a hint of optimism and hope in the air from the city's beleaguered agents.

One well known agent said that the results had just been published internally from his firm's quarterly Sentiment Index which looked encouraging. He believed that there are definitely more opportunities on the horizon than any time previously in the last year and did manage to back this up - watch out in our news pages in the coming weeks for more on this.

Agents were also buzzing about the announcement yesterday morning by Network Rail for its proposed new £34bn High Speed Rail Link from London to Scotland via Birmingham which would slash journey times between London and the UK's second city to just 45 minutes.

The knives appear to be out in Nottingham for self-styled cheeky chappy entrepreneur and property developer Chek Whyte as his business empire teeters on the brink of bankruptcy with debts of over £30m. What ired creditors at a meeting in the East Midlands capital yesterday was Whyte's failure to present a loudly-touted voluntary repayment plan, as he claimed it had been scuppered by creditor HMRC's unwillingness to play ball.

Should the creditors take this at face value? Maybe, maybe not - Whyte has a long-running spat with the taxman after all. What is undeniable is that Whyte has a flair for self-publicity, and his profile rocketed a couple of years back after he appeared in the Channel 4 TV show The Secret Millionaire. I met him shortly afterwards and we've spoken many times since and I have to tell you that he is a genuinely likeable guy. But I can't help wondering whether, if he was as astute at investment as he is at PR, he would be facing the flak that's now heading his way.

Anyone looking for a new recruit to their pub quiz team might want to steer clear of peers from King Sturge if the latest press release from the agent is anything to go by.

It trumpets the sale of a little office building in Nottingham (13-15 Clarendon Street, if you must know) that Godwin Developments has just flogged for around £800k.

What's interesting is that according to the release the building was previously occupied by the Customs & Exercise [sic]. Hmmm, I now have images in my head of very serious civil servants shuffling papers while peddling furiously on exercise bikes!

And perhaps someone should also quietly mention to King Sturge's press office that Customs and Excise hasn't existed since April 2005 when it was merged into what we know today as Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. General knowledge round anyone..?