Australian property developer Lendlease has been confirmed as the preferred partner for the Haringey Development Vehicle, on the promise of thousands of new homes and jobs to be created across the borough.

Haringey and Lendlease are discussing how the regeneration partnership will operate and be managed, before a final decision on whether to proceed is made by the council in the summer.

Cllr Alan Strickland, Haringey Council Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning said, “Confirming Lendlease as our preferred partner is a major step forward for our plans to deliver homes, jobs and opportunities for local people. A 50:50 partnership approach means we stay in control over how council land is developed while sharing the profits, which can go back into further regeneration, affordable housing and funding the services we provide to residents. We now look forward to working with Lendlease over the coming months to work out the details of the partnership.”

Well this all sounds great, but there’s no black without white, no night without day, no profit without loss. Haringey will be sharing the profits; will it also be sharing the losses?

The reason businesses get as big as Lendlease is not because they’re pleasant fellows to have a beer with; it’s because they’re deadly dealmakers who are tasked with doing everything they can to maximise shareholder value at the expense of everything and everyone with whom they have dealings. They are not charities or public authorities, they are in business to make as much money as they can. And because it’s their money, not a penny is wasted or unaccounted for.

Contrast that with the sedate life of an outer London council, confident in the knowledge that they’ll wake up on New Year’s Day with another £210 million of other people’s money safely banked without having to lift a finger.

Can I ask Cllr Strickland, a pleasant-looking young man whose day job is working for a charity, to ensure in his negotiations with the Australian behemoth that
a) the contract is with the holding company of Lendlease, not a quickly invented subsidiary company which will have to pay fees and royalties to another entity in the group
b) that auditors appointed by Haringey calculate the (hopeful) profits, rather than Lendlease people, who may be tempted to include expenses over and above what any ordinary human being could imagine.

My concern is that any profits created will be dissipated by fees, charges, expenses, royalties, contingencies and the thousand other nooks and crannies into which big businesses stuff their excess cash. When it comes to sharing out the pot, I fear there will be pitifully little in it for Haringey and its residents.

Why do I keep thinking of Barnet FC playing Barcelona?

To St. Margaret’s Westminster for the service of remembrance for Tony Snowdon. It was a glorious morning and the church was packed — I’d say about 1,200 people. We bellowed our way through ‘Cwm Rhondda’ and Bryn Terfel sang ‘Ar Hyd Y Nôs’ to harp accompaniment. It was a service as good as it gets. Son David gave a most moving address — he said most people don’t get the chance to grow up with their hero. The Queen and Prince Philip walked past me within touching distance. Will was there without Kate. I knew no one.
Tony had a lot of friends. He was kind, funny, talented and convivial. I don’t normally like to find myself in the same location as Kate Adie (for my US friends, she is the BBC’s most famous war correspondent), but this was the exception — a luncheon Tony gave in the Oliver Messel room at the Dorchester for fourteen friends.