Staff retention. Not exactly a priority for most companies in the building industry at the moment. Most are more worried about how they can get rid of people legally and still keep the business going.

So the Climate Change Committee says current energy efficiency policies for domestic sector are not enough for the government to reach its own targets on emission reductions under the Climate Change Act.

I know I'm a little behind the times on this issue as it really broke last week but I've been mulling it over in my head since and it doesn't become any clearer.

So, according to research by economists LEK, boosting the construction industry could prove the biggest way to boost the UK economy. That's because every £1 spent on construction leads to an increase in GDP of £2.84, as the spending not only creates construction output worth £1, but also stimulates growth elsewhere in the economy worth…

The phrase: "turnover is vanity, profit is sanity" has been trotted out so much over the years I've been in this business that it's become a cliché. But, like all clichés, it's become one simply because it is true.

This week's winner of the 'stuff that's so obvious it hurts' award is the news story from that redoubtable organisation the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that the Government is unlikely to reach its own target of three million homes by 2020.

Hurrah! The number of mortgages granted to prospective home buyers in October was nearly double what it was at the same time last year.

In an otherwise exemplary performance at the BMN Awards lunch a couple of weeks ago, John Inverdale - the sports presenter chappie - inadvertently upset rather a large number of his audience.

Whoo Hoo! Permit me, if you will, to gloat, just a little over the fact that there will apparently be an announcement in the PreBudget Report later today of a Boiler Scrappage Scheme, similar to the car scrappage scheme.

As usual it seems, Chancellor Darling's last Pre-Budget Report for this Parliament (possibly ever), was a mixed bag full of , well, not very much. I suppose you could call it another curate's egg, although not a particularly nice egg.