(But Why Not Just Settle For A £5 Million Cheque Every Year?)
Among the many epiphets that Peter de Savary attracted during his hyperactive few years in Cornwall in the 1980s and early ‘90s, “cat among the pigeons” and the like were high up on the list.
As an incoming investor and developer, he undoubtedly had the vision, passion, drive and wherewithal to Get Things Done – something that had become an almost alien concept in the previously “sleepy” duchy.
Not only was he the “colourful” tycoon, as the media dubbed him, he was also controversial. By no means all of his multi-million pound projects found universal favour.
And their usually high profile also sparked debate on broader issues – such as the nature of (vast) wealth and of those who acquire it.
I found two cases in point in a single page of the Falmouth Packet in March, 1988.
The first – long before the Eden Project was even thought of – concerned Land’s End, which was then Cornwall’s most visited attraction and had been acquired by Mr de Savary a few months earlier.
The report was almost certainly the word-for-word reproduction of a press release whose style bore a remarkable resemblance to one with which I was intimately familiar.
The landmark site was being “dramatically transformed” (see what I mean about controversy?) in double-quick time by an army of Cornish workers hailed as “the best of British,” the piece gushed.
Despite some of Cornwall’s worst-ever weather lashing its most exposed location, the new-look Land’s End would be 75 per cent ready by Easter.
This “remarkable achievement” was attributed to the great majority of the 120 builders having worked from 8 am to 7.30 pm seven days a week since arriving on the site just before Christmas.
The report went on to list all the new features that were being created both within and outside the main complex.
The developments also inspired a novel thinkpiece – “One Man’s View” - on that same Packet page from James Lowry. He wrote:--
Running my eye over the list of Britain’s 200 richest people – and noting from my latest bank statement that, alas, I am still a few quid short of joining such colourful company – I got to thinking about the nature of wealth and those who acquire it.
If you, like Peter de Savary, had £57 million behind you, would you continue flying around the world in search of acquisitions? And if so, why?
Speaking for myself, I would allow someone like National Provincial or Halifax to take charge of my money and look forward to an annual interest cheque which, at around eight and a half per cent, would net me a little under £5 million a year.
On that sum I feel I could squeeze by quite nicely. And I wouldn’t have all the bother of worrying about recalcitrant employees or troublesome business rivals.
Such natural indolence as I possess does not, however, accumulate fortunes. Had Mr de Savary been the sort to deposit his early earnings in a building society and then sit down to watch the world go by, he would not possess £57 million.
So it seems those who have money have no time to spend it. And those who, like me, are prepared to make time to spend it don’t have the wherewithal to acquire it. There is something fundamentally unjust about life, isn’t there.
By way of consolation, I am happy to note that Mr de Savary’s presence in Falmouth is at least increasing the value of my own modest assets. House prices in the town have risen by around 25 per cent over the last year – and they’re still moving ever upwards.
This point was underlined when I was chatting to a fellow who bought a ground floor flat with garden in Woodlane in 1983 for £39,500 – and has just had it valued at £70,000!
This same fellow told me of a property speculator who systematically makes his money by following Mr de Savary around the world, buying up property wherever the tycoon invests, and pulling in fat profits once prices zoom.
The speculator is in Falmouth doing just that at this very moment. So it seems all those who have invested something in Falmouth’s future stand to collect at least a few crumbs from a rich man’s table.
* That’s how I heard him describe himself, more than once – “I am The Man With The Money” – when introducing himself to various interested parties in the early stages of a project.
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