Paper round: Business urges Brown to appoint Olympic tsar

Olympics ‘needs a tsar or legacy will be chaos'

The Sunday Telegraph said that Gordon Brown has been urged by senior business leaders through the organisation, London First to appoint an Olympics “tsar” amid fears that the event and the plans for regeneration in east London will turn into chaos.

New property millionaires in the UK double in one year

The Times on Saturday said that the number of local communities that boast million-pound homes has doubled in the past five years, with nearly a third of the country now living near a property millionaire. Halifax said that there were sales at £1m or more in 30% of the postcode districts in England and Wales in 2006. That figure was up from 16% in 2001.

Amicus warns DTI of alleged danger of nuclear sale

TheTimes also reported that Amicus has written to the DTI saying that nuclear safety would be threatened if private equity buys the specialist engineering division of BNFL. According to the paper Amicus is concerned that a deal will be pushed through too quickly and because of an expected bid by Barclays Capital that an inexperienced owner could threaten safety.

Sainsbury seeks property lifeline

The Sunday Telegraph reported that the board of J Sainsbury is planning a sweeping review of its property assets after rebuffing a takeover bid that promised to release billions of pounds as a result of selling off stores.

Reits fall on stony ground as market ‘peaks’

The Sunday Telegraph said that the introduction of real estate investment trusts (Reits) in Britain has been an anticlimax and have failed to convince the market that they are worth more than their break up value.

Tax crackdown risks 'ruin' for agencies

Rules introduced in the budget and finance bill to crackdown on tax avoidance by managed service companies could inflict “financial ruin” on unwary contractors and recruitment agencies, the weekend The FT reported. The paper reported that providers of managed service companies, which are used by thousands of agency workers in the construction industry, have been taken aback by the scale of the crackdown, which only became apparent with the publication of the finance bill on Friday.

Will Alsop – The interview

The Observer ran a two-page interview on architect Will Alsop on Sunday. The article claimed, among other things, that Alsop was fast approaching the number three architect slot in Great Britain, behind Foster and Rogers.

A Style of her Own – Yvette Cooper interview

The Guardian on Saturday ran a full-page interview on housing minister Yvette Cooper, pointing out that she is expected to win a seat in Brown’s cabinet and asking if she could be the first female Labour prime minister.