WHAT does Thames Gateway mean to you? Is it a region somewhere east of London, characterised by defunct docks and the “dark, flat wilderness” marshes of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations; or is it the 40-mile long tract of land stretching from the capital out to Shoeburyness, in Essex, which is due to benefit from a £6 billion action plan and the coming of the Olympics in 2012 — in short, the next place to make money from property? If your scanty knowledge of this area makes you think of marshes, you may be taken aback by the suggestion that Thames Gateway could solve the South East’s housing crisis. But that is the imaginative recommendation of Sir Terry Farrell, architect of the M16 building in Vauxhall and adviser to the Thames Gateway Development Corporation. As we report on pages 6-7, he believes that a million homes, rather than the 120,000 proposed, could be built in such post-industrial Thames Gateway wastelands as the Lea Valley, close to London’s transport and other facilities.

That would be an alternative to development along the Harlow, Stansted, Cambridge M11 corridor on sites without the hospitals and schools essential to sustainable communities. The Government is still interested in creating those, but not in the same places that John Prescott had in mind when he was in charge of such things.

Post-Prescott, ministers are questioning the need to concrete over green fields. In light of that apparent change of heart, exploiting Thames Gateway seems even more logical: the Farrell regeneration vision even includes a national park to preserve wildlife and to act as a carbon sink soaking up some metropolitan CO2 emissions.

This would be a sensible measure, as rising sea levels, the consequence of CO2-induced global warming, mean that much of Thames Gateway is at risk of flooding. Anyone planning to put money into property in this area, either as an owner-occupier or as an investor, must hope that the steps now being taken to cope with that threat are effective. But the success of this project, and indeed the whole future of Thames Gateway, depends not only on architecture, flood barriers and other feats of engineering (some of it of the social kind), but on leadership. The dozens of different bodies involved in the enterprise are causing what one commentator has called a “muddle of overlapping mechanisms”. A supremo could make them work like a well-oiled machine. In 2008, the hugely competent Lord Browne of Madingley — a diplomat, an engineer, and a manager — will step down as CEO of BP. His next job should be as boss of Thames Gateway.

LOVE AT FIRST VIEWING

The property market statistic of the week comes from the Office for National Statistics: the nation’s wealth now adds up to £6,012 billion, housing being the largest chunk at £3,575 billion (59 per cent). The figures show that property is crucial to the financial wellbeing of most people — which makes another statistic of the week all the more puzzling. Most prospective purchasers spend less than 30 minutes viewing the home they finally pick, according to County Homesearch, a buying agent — about as long as they spend on the weekly supermarket shop.

This confirmation that love at first sight does indeed exist is good news for anyone selling a house. Sufficient evidence of an enviable lifestyle, in the shape of a Smeg fridge, say, seems enough to clinch the deal. Such a cursory examination would never suffice for the hugely wealthy people who have moved up the refrigerator hierarchy from the so-yesterday Smeg to the £12,000 SubZero Pro 48 and way beyond. These people became rich by investigating every aspect of a property; they pay buying agents to check the authenticity of original features, the level of traffic noise and suchlike.

Fortunately the internet can act as the poor man’s buying agent. As we explain on page 15, sites such as nethouseprices.co.uk, noisemapping.org.uk and planningportal.gov.uk aid detection work. The Government has decided to make the home condition report, compiled by a professional home inspector, a voluntary part of the home information pack. This should encourage buyers to become their own home inspectors.

SHARE A BATH WITH YOUR GARDEN

If a co-worker looks a little pale today, it may be that he has not been living it up but has been trying to safeguard the investment he has made in his garden, an important part of the value of his home. One way to save your parched plot is to siphon off bathwater in a makeshift version of highly fashionable grey-water recycling. Place the hosepipe under the water, drop the end out of the window and suck on the pipe so that water starts to flow down. Have buckets ready! This can leave a very unpleasant taste in the mouth and a lasting feeling of nausea, however. I have ordered a £19.99 DroughtBuster pump to see if it rescues my shrivelling shrubs while sparing my digestive system. I will report back.

anne.ashworth@thetimes.co.uk

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