People and Business: Not that Lilley

PETER LILLEY has been at the National Audit Office for 25 years. Yesterday he gave a talk on his experience overseeing the Ministry of Defence's office holdings to a property audience at the Industrial Society.

The first thing Mr Lilley said was: "I'm afraid I'm not the Peter Lilley you might have heard of; my hair's darker and there's less of it."

In contrast to the Tory front bencher, this Peter Lilley has to make sure the MoD looks after its 3 million sqm of office space properly and accounts for running costs of pounds 1bn a year.

Mr Lilley has visited the MoD's operations in Bosnia, flak jacket and all. The people from tectus, the architecture and design firm organising the briefing, were impressed.