THE MAN TO MANAGE TORY LAND PORTFOLIO
1972Alex MitchellTory government Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
The key property adviser to the Tory government will be Mr John Cuckney, a dynamic merchant banker and, until recently, chairman of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.
On September 1 he will take over a newly-created job at the Department of Environment as 'chief executive of the property services agency. The appointment was announced by Edward Heath himself.
Heath told the Commons the new agency would be engaged in 'property management services, building construction and maintenance and the appropriate supplies' He added: 'Government property management will be concentrated as far as practicable so as to ensure that land and buildings are put te best use. The defence lands organization of the l Ministry ol Defence will be incorporated in the agency' and opening markets.
Like Sainsbury, Cuckney is one of Heath's private businessmen brought into Whitehall to make things more 'efficient'.
There should be no illusions about the importance of Cuckney's appointment: he is now in charge of the government's vast property portfolio which includes square miles of property up and down the country.
Who is Cuckney and how does he qualify for such a position?
Aged 46, he was educated at Shrewsbury and St Andrew's University. He became a staff captain in Royal Northumberland Fusiliers during the war and then joined the War Office. What he did at the War Office between 1949 and 1957 is not made clear in his biographical details.
On leaving the civil service, Cuckney quickly found his feet in the City of London. By 1964 he was made a director with Lazard Brothers and Company, the extremely vigorous banking house.
Just over two years ago he resigned unexpectedly from the board; it was said at the time he was the first person in the bank's history to do such a thing.
But Cuckney had decided to strike out on his own. With the financial backing of Mr Davoud Alliance, the Persianborn textile magnate, who put together the Spirella Group, Cuckney bought the rundown Anglo-Eastern Bank.
The first year the bank suffered a £22,000 loss, but in the next 12 months he has managed to turn this inauspicious start into a pre-tax profit of £170,000.
His attention to banking has been interrupted on two occasions by calls government.
First of all he was summoned to Liverpool to restore the bankrupt Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. A number of old-stagers left the board after a rather torrid board battle.