Roskov book 26, p.9
Roskov, Book 26, page 9
Stood in my suite, staring out of the window at angry grey clouds, hands in pockets, I considered how to fight this war, an old story of simple greed, as old as mankind itself.
Three days later and Brown had made good on his suggestion, a billion pounds added to the Taxpayers’ Fund. I sat down with Russel, our senior managers and our builders and architects, and all projects that were “under consideration” would now be started, more men hired, more cranes from France and Holland to arrive.
Barratts, as well as their two biggest rivals, would start on the additional cheap apartment blocks, two hundred planned in the first tranche and with part payments scheduled; the builders would receive money each month.
We would target the area around Docklands, but also build the cheap apartment blocks around the UK, as well as our standard two-bed apartments for young couples, a massive push that was bound to nudge up inflation.
But it would also create jobs, it would lower house prices, and it would worry Trin Jones and his British cabal.
Our Swedish men pitched their ideas to me, and we would import much of the furniture for the new cheap apartments, and we already had the toilet bowls and sinks set aside, we even had some suitable paint.
The one side effect of importing and using our own furniture was that inflation would be knocked down, no purchases of British furniture in British shops to push up inflation.
When the plans had been made Russel typed up a document, sent to Gordon Brown. And, just to be spiteful, I had our annual rent rise for London kept at zero this year, something sure to cost Trin Jones some sleep.
Finding two additional large and suitable key-worker buildings in London, we bought them, and we would convert them to rooms not apartments, communal cafes and a laundry plus a few shops.
Both buildings would offer around five hundred rooms for key workers, and the net effect would be a reduction in the demand for small apartments, a knock-on effect to be felt up the ladder hopefully.
As arranged by Blair, we had also secured a large MOD property, but it would be converted into posh apartments – each room offering large windows and high ceilings.
Visiting our new sub-prime loans company a week later I found it busy, many more desks in use, more than twice the number of call centre ladies sat with headsets on in their cubicles.
I entered the manager’s office as he sat with four senior staff. ‘You look busy.’
He had stood for me, as had the others. I sat and they sat. ‘The line on the chart is off the chart and up the wall.’
I smiled. ‘Need to adjust the scale on the chart. Are you coping?’
‘We expected to expand to a certain size, just that it’s happening faster than desired, shall we say. Not a problem finding call centre ladies, and a few men, and it’s simple to train them. And many of the ladies are in their fifties.’
‘And Directory Enquiries?’
‘We’re now listed, and getting calls from all over the UK.’
‘What’s the average loan size?’
‘Anything from sixty quid to three hundred, all micro loans. Some of the people are on Equifax as being bad people, so we don’t deal with them, some just have a very poor credit score, so we get their job payment slips and then decide. If they’ve been in the job six months and make eight hundred a month … we can loan them a hundred quid with low-ish risk.
‘We then see how they deal with us, and the better people get offered better loans in the future, the bad people get blocked – those swearing down the phone at us or threatening to kill us.’
I smiled. ‘We grow the client base like a field of rice.’
‘Yes, just that, we keep the good people and get rid of the bad people – like the other loans company.’
‘And if the calls keep coming…’
‘We’re training more people than we need, so that we have staff working a six-hour day not eight, for now at least.’
‘Design some office systems, and adjust the computer system any way you wish, make the software work hard for you, and the office systems as well.’
He told me, ‘We have tags on files, colour coded, and you can see at a glance what stage they’re at, makes things faster. And we have a link to Equifax, and one to your main database, and if someone says they live at a certain address then we call the person who really lives there and check.’
‘Good, a good use of our database. Oh, we have toasters at my outlet, good quality toasters, thousands of them. They cost us about nine quid each, so offer them as gimmicks. If someone pays us back on time … send a toaster for five quid but they pay delivery.
‘It doesn’t make us anything, but it pleases the client and gets them on our side as good customers for years to come.’
He nodded. ‘A bit soon, we have no one paying us back yet, but a great idea, keep them happy. What do these toasters retail for?’
‘These are the good ones, almost thirty quid in the shops.’
One of the men sitting down put in, ‘I got one from your warehouse, and one for my mum. And my dad got a shit load of paint from there.’
‘It is getting busy,’ I told him.
A second man put in, ‘My mate works in a shop selling paint, and they each went down and bought ten tins, and they re-sell them in their shop in Nottingham.’
‘That’s OK, I don’t want to harm local businesses, and most of what comes to us goes to our large customers, like Barratts, and our nursing homes, of course.’
Walking out, I saw a young man and got the tingle, and approaching him I put out my hand. We shook, and the images surfaced, just before I stepped back and kicked him in the nuts.
I faced my shocked manager. ‘Did he tell you that he got a suspended sentence for fraud and theft?’
‘What? No, he fucking didn’t!’ Our manager rushed at the man as he was lifted up by bystanders. ‘You have a criminal record for fraud?’
The man with sore balls did not respond.
‘You’re fired! Get out! And expect the police to come looking for you, arsehole!’
The man was led out as the staff wondered what was up.
The manager faced me and calmed himself. ‘How did you know?’
‘It’s a small city, and I recognised him.’ I left my manager to find a replacement for the fraudster with sore balls.
Investors
The following day I travelled down to London, arriving in time for a Docklands Investors’ meeting, but there would also be many invited guests wandering around the event – it would be hard to know friend from foe.
I found many large drawings and paintings on easels, drawings of apartment clusters that I was involved with. I shook hands with those grey-haired old men that I knew and were already partnered with, I accepted a drink and worked the room, and at the allotted time I took to the podium.
‘Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for attending here tonight on this … fine evening.’
They laughed.
‘What’s happened since our last meeting … is the advent of the new Docklands’ Belt Regeneration Programme, a somewhat socialist programme to develop the area around Docklands, government money to be used.
‘Private investors such as us will invest in nice apartments and nice office blocks inside of the Docklands’ Development Zone, but the Government is aware that the area immediately outside that zone is … old and decaying and not easy on the eye.
‘And young city traders living in tall apartment blocks will have a view that is not ideal, they won’t see rivers and parks and … The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.’
They laughed.
‘So by developing the region around Docklands the Government gets what it wants, and those groups developing properties inside the zone get what they want as well, a better view.
‘But we could all also expect lower crime, better local shops, better local facilities, and I’m even building a scuba diving centre there. The money has been allocated, contacts have been allocated, and work will begin straight away – since that Roskov chap does not hang around.
‘So work will soon start on some social housing, but mostly on low-cost units, houses and apartments that are not quite social housing, as well as key worker places.
‘We hope that, in the years to come, nannies and cleaners in the city are cheaper and more readily available, many to be found living in the Docklands’ Regeneration Zone.
‘Will there be good opportunities for you lot to invest in? Hell no. Stick to the inner zone. What will happen, though, is that where a new swanky apartment block for city executives sits opposite an empty plot, that empty plot will end up with houses and apartments, shops, doctors and dentists and facilities.
‘If you’re the one that built that swanky apartment block, then you’ll benefit because the prices of your apartments will rise. No longer an empty plot of rusted metal to look at but nice new houses and apartments.
‘And for those of you invested in my shopping mall with apartments above it, new nearby residents in low-cost units will be using the shops and facilities; more people living nearby means more retail trade. And the number of people living within two miles will jump by around forty thousand.
‘As to my existing shopping mall … it may be complete in two months, and we have a long list of companies that wish to have shops there, or to make use of the offices above.
‘What was considered a gamble, the size of the shopping mall, is now a problem … in that the mall is too small for the expected population within the catchment area.
‘So nearby towers that we build may also offer a few shops, a café and a pharmacy and … not worry about the shops being empty. If you’re building single apartment blocks six hundred yards away, yes – they should have shops on the ground floor, to save someone a long walk in the rain.
‘In addition to my shopping mall in Docklands we have four others under construction around London, one in Manchester and one in Leeds now under construction, all with modest shopping malls.
‘I can also confirm now that my new super-sized nursing home cluster for the East End has cut ground, and it will sit just at the edge of the Regeneration Zone, jobs created, many a well-paid doctor to be seeking a nice apartment with us, nurses to be sharing.
‘And for those who had a doubt about Battersea, the Government estimates that the building will save sixty percent of previous social housing and medical costs for the twelve thousand residents, not to mention local houses and apartments being freed up.
‘Sixty … percent saved, close to a billion pounds a year. And the site makes a good profit for my consortium. Ladies and gentlemen, there is an economy of scale that they teach you on day one when you study economics. Why am I having to re-educate some of you?
‘A large nursing home has an economy of scale, so does a shopping mall with many apartments above it. It’s not rocket science, it’s common sense. OK, questions?’
A man raised his hand. ‘What area will the regeneration zone cover?’
‘Roughly a mile in depth all around the existing zone, but it’s flexible, and the entire project has been placed in my care, my design, my planning and execution.
‘It was not put out to tender because it’s an idea and a hope, not a fixed plan, and I have the means and the track record to make sure that it’s done – and done under budget.’
A second man raised his hand. ‘No good investments in that zone?’
‘Some, on the edge, closest to your new apartment blocks. Basically, just over the road. If you want to build there you can, just that the council may stipulate low-cost units and plenty of rental units. Rental prices would be at market rates, you won’t be forced to be cheap.’
The man responded, ‘So it’s more of the same, but no posh apartments…’
‘No posh apartments.’
A man raised his hand. ‘What about the area immediately around the new nursing home?’
‘That could have a few nice apartments, but not expensive apartments, doctors are not rich people. If you build modest three-bed apartments you’d be sure of filling them with medical staff.’
‘And shops near it?’
‘We’ll have our own shops, but there’ll be no opposition to additional shops outside. Done at your own risk.’
He noted, ‘The shops outside the nursing home in Manchester do a good trade…’
‘The internal shops specialise in essential food and drink only, so there’ll always be a need for other shops. And the shop outside that sells and fixes dentures is doing a roaring trade.’
They laughed.
‘Some good figures to chew on, slowly and carefully.’
They laughed and shook heads.
A man raised a hand. ‘What effect will the new project have on house prices around Docklands?’
I had been expecting just such a question. ‘On paper, an expert with no common sense might predict a lowering of average rental prices and house prices in that area.
‘But what we know from accurate observation … is that there are far more people wanting to move into London than we previously anticipated.
‘Too many new apartments should cause a drop in price, but they’re not - and they won’t, because too many people want to get into London. All of the apartments will be snapped up, many to have four key workers living inside, some on the floor.
‘If you were to look at the new apartments and ask … how many new young executives are there, then you might wrongly calculate that rental prices might fall. They won’t, because small apartments will soon house unsuitable families and people sleeping on the floor.
‘Rental prices will not fall, we’d need to build a hell of a lot more apartments first.’
Another man raised his hand. ‘And when the build is finished?’
‘Prices will rise steadily due to demand, unless the British economy takes a big hit, and … all the signs are that we’re overheating and not about to take a big hit.’
A man raised his drink. ‘What has Gordon Brown got lined up for social housing for the rest of the UK?’
‘I thought you were saluting me with your drink.’ They laughed. ‘Cheers to you too. I give a good speech, but leave the salutes to the end, eh. Gordon Brown … now has nothing lined up, his plans have been side-lined because my outfit is already doing it all, and doing it well and quickly.
‘He wants more and better social housing outside the M25, and we’re doing that already in quantity, our nursing homes are freeing up council houses, and the need for social housing is diminishing each day. By the end of Labour’s first term the pressure will be off, no longer a strong need for more social housing.’
A man asked, ‘What do you see as price rises inside the M25?’
‘The area inside the M25 has a greater density of businesses, and high earners, than the rest of the UK, and that magnetic effect … of all those people coming together and drawn towards the centre, will always push prices higher.
‘As far as Blair and Brown are concerned, Central London is a free for all and they won’t waste taxpayers’ money attempting to halt price rises, but they will spend on some key worker apartments – as we are doing.
‘I’m resigned to the fact that prices in London will rise, and keep rising, and that there’s little anyone can do about it. Docklands will generate tens of thousands of new apartments, which will be snapped up quickly by sharp young people moving into London from outside. None will sit empty.’
‘So there’s no plan to keep London prices down?’
‘There’s a desire to make sure that London has low-cost housing for its low-income workers and key workers, and we’re addressing that. If we don’t address that … then businesses in London will suffer, no workers being able to afford to live in London.
‘If we don’t address the issue … then the local coffee shop will be charging you twelve quid for a coffee.’
‘They do now!’ he complained, the assembled investors laughing.
Another man asked, ‘Are there still good opportunities in Corsica?’
‘On a small scale, yes, but the nice land has been bought mostly, many keen European developers moving in, as well as people like Barclays and the Saudis. Better deals elsewhere these days. The cost price of land and build there has trebled.’
‘And your funds will continue to make good returns?’
‘Our second year will be much better than our first.’
Men exchanged looks.
A shot rang out, but it was outside, worried men looking around.
‘Stay calm, but stay away from the windows.’ I walked to the windows and peered down, despite the advice I had just given. A man lay dead on the floor, a huge pool of black blood seen on the pavement, police rushing around.
Laz began, The man was hired to shoot you as you mingle with guests at the function – he had an invite, but he was killed by a hidden sniper.
That will confuse them. This sniper?
That was me.
A barrister and a sniper. Do you get twice the pay?
Ha.
The police came inside, a few old men seen to be worried, so I mingled and chatted to my investors for forty minutes, few concerned by the man outside making a mess on the pavement.
I was eventually led out, and first, heavily flanked, to the minibus and off, back to my apartment near Parliament.
Blair called as I got there. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes, shooting was outside.’
‘A sniper was used, so I’m worried. And that man had a good fake invite to your function and an unregistered pistol.’
‘He was after me, yes.’
‘The people we spoke about?’
‘Most likely. But it seems that the left hand is not talking to the right hand, as happened before – assassins sent to me were stopped.’
‘An internal feud?’
‘Yes, we’ve seen it several times, and I get tip-offs from someone at the top table.’
‘So they’re not united, a few dissenting voices in the ranks.’
‘Of course, they plan murder … and not just some dodgy investments. Many will disagree with the plan.’
