Odd Couples

Tony Pidgley and Tony Pidgley Jr
We hope the industry's most famous father and son duo have made things up since their parting of the ways in February. Pidgley Jr launched a £1bn bid for Berkeley Group, the company his dad founded in the 1970s. The bid from Cadenza, which the younger Pidgley formed after leaving Berkeley in 2001, was rebuffed – but he told Building in March that his relationship with his father was still strong. His father's year, though, has been shadowed by doubts over the housing market.

Ray O'Rourke and George Brumwell
They may be on different sides of the fence, but their paths crossed when thrashing out a £55,000-a-year deal for workers on Heathrow Terminal 5. UCATT general secretary Brumwell took over the mantle of Building Personality of the Year from O'Rourke and then entered the foreign workers debate. He is thought to be in line to chair the Construction Skills Certification Scheme once he retires from UCATT next year. For O'Rourke the sky was the limit in 2003. The Laing O'Rourke chief announced plans to grow the business from £1.3bn to £5bn by 2008.

RICS president Nick Brooke and dissident Jeremy Hackett
The issue that filled Building's postbag in 2003 was the state of the RICS. It has never inspired much love, but when it demanded a 32% hike in fees in May, a revolt ensued. Members' anger at the service offered was voiced by QS Jeremy Hackett, who called for an extraordinary general meeting. It all left incoming president Nick Brooke with something of a headache. He has appointed a QS champion, namely former Davis Langdon & Everest man Paul Morrell. But Hackett is still on the warpath …

Paris Moayedi and Steven Norris
Moayedi ended a bad year for Jarvis by giving up the chairmanship to Steven Norris. Moayedi saw his firm's image plummet over its rail maintenance and PFI operations. Publicity centred on the firm's role in the Potter's Bar rail crash last year and a derailment at King's Cross in October. A PFI school contract in the Wirral also came under scrutiny by the BBC. But Norris' appointment offered little respite. He was accused of a conflict of interest, as Jarvis is part of the Tube Lines consortium and he is the Conservative candidate for mayor of London.

John Prescott and Prince Charles
Prescott is unlikely to be a regular guest at Clarence House, but his penchant for Poundbury, the Prince of Wales' village in Dorset, could prove significant in the government's drive to build new houses, especially in the South-east. The two share positive views on design codes, which stipulate the style of a development as well as its scale and positioning in return for a speeded-up planning process. This came to light when the Prince's Foundation was shortlisted to masterplan a housing growth area in Ashford, Kent, a key location in Prescott's Communities Plan.