City Spy: Delegates stunned by freezing solution

At The London Conference at the Royal Festival Hall yesterday, the main topic of discussion, on the platform in the various sessions and among the delegates throughout the day, was of London’s housing crisis.

Everyone, it seemed, was in agreement that something had to be done about the shortage of affordable properties. But what? At the packed event, organised by Centre for London, with speakers including Boris Johnson, Jim O’Neill and Tessa Jowell, different solutions were put forward.

The numbers of planned new homes bandied about seemed to get ever higher. Trouble was, there was no clear idea of how anyone would ensure enough of the new-builds were aimed at public-sector workers who otherwise couldn’t afford to live in the capital.

The problem, everyone agreed, was that land values were high and climbing ever higher, pushing developers towards building luxury apartments. Then, a delegate from Germany, proposed freezing land prices. Cue stunned silence as the hall took in the implications of his obvious but radical solution.

The other issue that repeatedly reared its head was better transport links. The Green Party’s big idea? Renationalise the railways. Not only was it not clear who would foot the bill but those with longer memories referred the Greens back to the dark days of British Rail.

Another area of agreement was that major infrastructure projects must be speeded up.

Sir Howard Davies is charged with coming up with a plan for airport expansion. But he has been told he cannot report until after the next general election — for fear of aviation becoming an issue in the campaign.

So even though he may know what he is going to decide, he’s prevented from saying so because the politicians won’t let him. So much for wanting to do things in a hurry.

Charles Rolls can never be accused of lacking ambition. As reported in this paper yesterday, the co-founder of premium tonic Fever-Tree has just pushed the button on a £154 million listing.

As he writes, in private equity firm Piper’s recently published Going Global: “Our arrival on the scene has put Schweppes in a tricky position. For years it’s been telling everyone its tonic water is the best, but our customers beg to differ. Nevertheless creating a ‘premium’ Schweppes to compete with us would undermine its original product.”

Fever-Tree was founded in 2004, Schweppes in 1783. Let’s return in 231 years to see who’s still standing.

The Japanese government is about to “indefinitely postpone” legalising casinos, apparently.

Did somebody forget to tell the Bank of Japan and the nation’s pension fund, throwing billions in made-up money at debt and share markets? But that’s monetary policy, not gambling. Phew.

At the annual Walpole British Luxury Awards, held the other day at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the luxury and fashion crowd mixed with celebrities including chef Marcus Wareing, Olympic rower Sir Matthew Pinsent and ex-footballer Sol Campbell.

The evening was hosted by model Jodie Kidd. Michael Morley, chief executive of sponsor Coutts, took to the stage to introduce the awards, and launched into a story about the demise of the bank’s diary — it decided to stop sending it out to clients and embrace the digital world.

But after many complaints, and strong demand for old copies on eBay, it has decided to bring back the diary. Morley quipped: “The Coutts luxury paper-based diary matter has been settled for at least a generation.”