Dorset County Councillor Tim Munro has described the proposal to to moor a private cruise ship in Portland Harbour to house 800 police for the Olympics sailing events as "disgusting".

Paul Norman reveals that IKEA have acquired the Sugar House Lane site for housing development.

Olympic Games displace people through eviction. They also result in higher land values and the consequent displacement of poorer residents through rises in rents and higher house prices. A recent report by Dr Georgios Kavetsos of the Cass Business School has confirmed that this process is underway in the vicinity of the 2012 London Olympic Park.

Flagged up recently on our newsgroup was an article on the opendalston blog on the financial difficulties facing developers Barratts, contractors for the so-called Dalston Olympic Transport Interchange and numerous building projects around Stratford High St.

While recently reading the New Economics Foundation report 'Fools Gold, How the 2012 Olympics is selling East London short, and a 10 point plan for a more positive local legacy', I came across a reference to a report '2012 Home Games' published in 2006 by East Thames Group. East Homes, a part of the group, is a Registered Social Landlord which is "the largest multi-tenure landlord across east London and Essex, providing general needs accommodation and home ownership initiatives for the Group.”

Why does an MP ask a question of a Minister? A simple question you might think. Take a look at the following. First is the question asked by Andy Love, Labour MP for Edmonton.

'To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many local authority tenants will be displaced from their housing as a result of the 2012 Olympics; how their housing needs will be met; and if she will make a statement.'

.

If greed is good, then the construction industry is a great place to be virtuous. The typical director takes home £400,000 a year more than he did in 1995, while employees’ wages have gone up nearly 75%. Indeed, the past decade or so has been extraordinarily kind to construction. Margins across the industry have more than doubled. Even contracting margins, which look so lowly when compared with the rest of British industry, have risen from an average of 0.8% to 2.4%.