Title

It's a sell-out for Eric Diary is tickled by news that communities secretary, Eric Pickles, wishes to transform the foyer of DCLG's Whitehall headquarters at Eland House into a supermarket. Reported by the Evening Standard's Joe Murphy, housing minister, Grant Shapps, tweeted a link to the story, commenting, he ‘would be able to nip down for a sarnie & clawback some of the £18m rent (no breakclause) Labour agreed for our Ministry'. A look at the department's asset plan reveals how in 2008, the DCLG rationalised its Westminster properties, surrendering a lease at Ashdown House in Victoria Street in return for relinquishing the opportunity to exercise a lease break in 2011. Sources maintain this is a serious proposal to secure a £1m return from the building's 2,000 square metre ground floor space. Supermarket giants such as Waitrose and Tesco have been bandied about as potential occupants, there already being a Sainsbury's down the road, next to Westminster City Council HQ and a Marks & Spencers in nearby Cardinal Place. Diary believes in better. Why not tempt officials to chip-and-pin their Visa-enabled Government Procurement Cards, and personal means of payment where necessary, with the sights and smells that would do credit to an all British growth story and central plank of new localism, whose very name acknowledges our decentralisation minister. Yes, since they now have more high street branches than Yankee upstarts McDonalds, Diary would suggest that Greggs the Bakers is the natural fit for Eland House. Treble large sausage rolls all round!

Title

Diary

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING