The Planner(79)

‘Well, yes – that’s right,’ said James. ‘There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to work together. After all, fundamentally, we work in the same sector. We may have different priorities, but we all want to see the same things happen.’

This was pretty much what he’d said to them at the football, but now it seemed that more was expected of him. There was a pause. Simon nodded his head, but didn’t smile. Robert took a piece of paper from his desk and handed it to him.

‘So do you think you could help us with these?’

James looked at the sheet. There were eight questions, most of which he could answer there and then. If they had bothered to download and read his masterplan then they could have found the information themselves. But the last two were more difficult. In fact, they weren’t really questions, they were requests to do something.

‘We’re only looking for a bit of friendly advice,’ said Robert. ‘There’s no pressure or anything.’

But of course there was pressure, there was great pressure. These people were the real thing – they were businessmen. They weren’t bureaucrats and do-gooders, and they weren’t like Felix’s advertising friends either – they didn’t spend their time dreaming up zany websites and brand strategies. Every single thing they did incurred a cost and needed to make a return, and that included this meeting.

‘Yes,’ said James. ‘I’d be happy to help. I can give you the answers to these tomorrow morning. But you know that the height restrictions are fixed, and I can’t alter specifications on the affordable housing or key-worker allocations. That would need to be a policy decision.’

‘That’s helpful,’ said Robert. ‘Of course, we don’t want you to do anything that you’re not comfortable with. It’s just about trying to speed things up.’

‘So on the social-housing issue, would that need to go back to council members?’ said Simon.

‘No, it shouldn’t do. To a certain extent, the composition of individual mixed-use developments can be done at the discretion of executive officers, but not at my level. Although I can make recommendations.’

‘So you’re saying we’d need to have a conversation with Lionel Rogers?’ said Simon. ‘Or should we go higher than that? If need be, I can put in a call to someone.’

‘No, I wouldn’t do that,’ said James. ‘Your best bet would be to talk to one of the housing associations who have already submitted an expression of interest. I can give you the contacts. What we’re expecting are consortium bids from commercial and not-for-profit partners.’

But Simon didn’t seem particularly interested in that piece of advice.

‘Yes, of course, the housing associations. We know them all well.’

‘We prefer not to have to work with them if we can help it,’ said Robert. ‘Most of them seem to be more bothered about hitting targets than accruing genuine value.’

‘We’re much more interested in inward investment,’ said Paul. ‘In bringing jobs and prosperity into your borough, rather than just managing decline and shifting low-income groups from one patch to another.’

Simon and Robert both nodded their heads, and James could see that Paul would rise and rise in Galbraith & Erskine, that he was surely headed for senior management. Did he have a planning qualification? Almost certainly not. More likely, he had studied economics or finance, maybe even philosophy – something that taught you how to be cold-hearted in a way that came across as sensible and wise.

‘You’re not saying that Sunbury Square has to be delivered by a housing association are you?’ said Robert.

‘No – even if we wanted that, we couldn’t do it. Our tender process doesn’t allow us to exclude or specify any partners. It’s just what we’re probably expecting.’

‘The Bermondsey developments. None of those had a housing association attached, did they?’

‘No, they didn’t.’

‘So there’s no reason why this one should have to.’

‘No, no reason. It’s just what we’re expecting will come back to us. As I said, some housing associations have already been in touch.’

‘You mean they’ve submitted bids?’

‘No – not yet. No one has. But there have been informal meetings.’

‘Meetings ahead of a competitive tender?’ said Paul.

‘Well, meetings like this one, I suppose.’

There was a pause. The atmosphere had become brittle. It wasn’t like being in a meeting with Rachel and Neil Tuffnel. There was no munching of chocolate biscuits while people tried to come up with friendly things to say to one another.