Green-lighting the Brown

29 April 2008

“Are you a green man or a brown girl in the ring?” That’s the question invariably asked of the CEOs in property development. Ask it too low down the foodchain and you may get punched in the face, so be careful all you trainee journalists out there who read this column.

This somewhat innocuous builders’ code divines whether they like to build sustainably on already used land or have a frontier mentality, hustling to build on any piece of agricultural acreage they see fit. It sorts out the girls from the boys, so to speak.

I’m aware that our dire need for more Swindons near premium service centres will involve a combination of development, and more ecovillages are a must. But we must take old and tired towns up and down the land and recycle them into the modern age. New paradigms for old Peterboroughs, and look how well that place is doing as a centre of media production. Right now the smart money is on the brown girls.

I’m pleased to say that The McClintocks have a proud tradition of taking over used land and making the most of local resources, especially in Africa, so I have always been instinctively in the brownfield camp. It doesn’t take a genius to see Britain is getting smaller (hello land erosion, goodbye Dorset country pile) and more crowded by the minute. Factor in the credit crunch chewing at liquidity and it’s best to deal with facts on the ground - negotiate with what’s already there rather than pies in the sky.

A great many well-meaning construction stakeholders forget the aesthetics of construction. At S’Bounce council meetings I always tell them to get a bespoke consultancy off an old pal - Mr Russell Harris. An architectural prime mover at the business end of the property market, Russell (pronounced Rousselle) is a passionate believer in blending function with style, as one look at the frontpage of his site would tell you.

I know from my wife Sophie’s legendary dinner parties that 'Russelldust' has always been a brown girl kinda guy, though he fraternises with a lot of green men too. Whatever the remit, this guy delivers solutions by the executive bucketload. How? You want a photovoltaic solar panel on top of your Victorian folly? Fax Harris and your dream will be catapulted from CAD simulation to super reality.

Catch more of this enchanting individual while you can on the Channel 5’s riveting I Own Britain’s Best House. It’s people like Harris who should be at the frontline of the UK’s development programme, thinking, acting and looking smarter.

 

A message to Londoners
Although I appreciate some of you may be too caught up in the crazy antics of toothy diva Amy Winehouse, it may have escaped some of your attention that there’s a mayoral election contest unfolding in the world’s greatest city.

The Right Path Party gave its backing to my old pal Boris Johnson some months ago and I urge you to do the same (we have already made arrangements for RPP delegates). This capital has always been a drivers’ city so it needs quaint old buses and more cars on the road, do yer Ken? Mark my words, Boris will build London rich again.

Comments

[Brian Alsop]

Jezzle, can you dance with a gay monkey or something to gove Boris that final push over the line? We're on tenterhooks here!

[U. No]

I don't live in London so I don't give a green man in a brown girl's ring about it.

[Frank Westley]

Did you not get to stand given your interest in Bromley and Chiselhurst, Jeremy? And is that London anyway these days?