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Development of a new office property in Chiswick, dubbed the Octopus, has now been given the go-ahead despite initial objections from members of Hounslow Council.

Following on from Sir Alan Sugar and continuing The Apprentice theme, this week's feature is the US Apprentice figurehead, the business magnate Donald Trump. Unlike his UK counterpart, Donald was born into wealth, with his own success story arising from transforming his father's business into a global brand.

Welcome back to The Insider Weekly!

We're already on the third edition of our weekly insight into the people of officebroker.com and what we all get up to outside of the world of work. Don't forget to join in by telling us what's happening with you over the coming weeks - just leave a comment below or email news@officebroker.com. And to make sure you never miss a future edition of the Insider, drop me a quick email to get on the distribution list.

Four of Bizspace's more daring managers are literally taking the plunge this weekend in a bid to raise money for their chosen charity, The Stroke Association.

The success of the Etruria Valley Business Park in Stoke-on-Trent is to be built upon, with Birmingham based developer St Modwen submitting an application to create additional office space at the site.

A business centre in Gosport has been recognised for the quality of its extensive outdoor spaces and landscaped areas in the annual 'Gosport In Bloom' Awards.

Property developer Nurton has cleaned up, fighting off tough competition from rival schemes to secure Vax as a new tenant for its office space at Two Colmore Square in Birmingham City Centre.

officebroker.com Account Manager Stephen Turner is gearing up to take part in the gruelling Sucata Split banger rally next year, which starts in Bruges and ends (for the lucky ones) in Croatia’s stunning capital, Split.

Supermarket chain Asda has expanded its office based presence in Leeds through acquiring 2 floors, totalling 38,000 square feet of space, at £17m The Mint development in Holbeck.

Following last month's survey on sustainable buildings, results from 200 respondents show that recycling bins and energy efficient lighting are the most popular green practices, but many companies are reportedly holding back from doing more by a lack of funding, resource and appreciation of green benefits.

The gauntlet has officially been thrown. Hitting ICON once is good, but reaching it twice in a row is pretty outstanding.

Following on from her success last month, where it was announced that Central London consultant Rebecca-Jane Strawford reached all of her targets in August to become an officebroker.com ICON, she went one better by smashing her targets all over again in September, making her our first double ICON.

An office property on Colmore Row in Birmingham may not get two additional floors following complaints about the proposed design, which one councillor says resembles a UFO landing on top.

The small amount of office space currently available in Hong Kong has driven up prices according to commercial property firm Colliers, with a new report once again identifying the city as the most expensive place in the world in which to rent office space.

This week's instalment, featuring Lord Sugar, kicks off our business leader profile series and summarises how humble beginnings of selling market goods from the back of a van was transformed into a vast personal fortune, nearing £1billion.

The demand for office space across the North West has outstripped the rest of the UK, with a 34% increase in the number of businesses entering serviced offices since the beginning of 2011 when compared to the same period in 2010.

Flatpack furniture specialist Ikea has revealed plans for its first British housing development, claiming it has 'billions' to invest into the UK's property development market.

The proposal will see the construction of 1,200 eco-friendly homes, in addition to retail, hotel and office space, with Ikea claiming it will create a 'mini-venice' located in Stratford, adjacent to the Olympic Park.

Welcome back to The Insider Weekly! Launched last week, this is the second of a new weekly insight into the goings-on of the officebroker.com team outside of work.

Don't forget to join in by telling us about your own plans for the weekend or what's happening over the coming weeks - just leave a comment below or email news@officebroker.com. And if you want to sign up to get email notifications of every weekly 'Insider', drop me a quick email and I'll add you to the distribution list.

The 407 ft Euston Tower is a 36-floor skyscraper located within the Regent's Place development, a mixed-use scheme born out of the original 'Euston Centre' proposal. This was developed by British Land and, upon completion in 2013 with the delivery of the North East Quadrant, will provide 1 million sq ft of office, retail and leisure space.

Donning bright green morphsuits, baking delicious cakes and performing yoga in 40°C heat is all in a day's work for the team at Orega's Wandsworth business centre.

Bill Gates, now the world’s second richest man, first became a billionaire at the age of 31, making him the youngest man ever to have achieved this at the time. But as with all records they are there to be broken – a challenge which no fewer than 5 adolescent adults have now achieved.

Each November men across the world neglect to shave their upper lip in order to support prostate cancer and testicular cancer initiatives. But as Moustache Season draws closer, can supporting a worthwhile cause such as Movember bring benefits to both the charities involved and your business?

Blackberry blackouts last week left millions of users without access to email and messaging services, raising questions over the reliance we have on mobile devices as well as the possibility of Blackberry being forced to watch as disgruntled customers migrated to rival devices.

The MTV Studios and HQ of Viacom International Media Networks UK (VIMN UK) in Camden, North London are set to undergo a revamp, introducing new studios along with 35,000 sq ft of new and refurbished office space.

Serviced office provider Business Environment (BE) have launched a new business networking brand in all of its 18 business centres, located throughout London, Thames Valley and the South East.

Plans to develop Wrexham’s first business park are proceeding with council officers appealing for authority to purchase 30 acres of land located at Croesnewydd.

Welcome to The Insider Weekly - a new insight into the officebroker.com team that delivers news, views and antics every Friday, straight from within the walls of HQ!

It's a bit of Friday fun, as well as a chance for you to get to know the people behind officebroker.com. We're all about people and relationships, and we have a fantastic team who are always getting up to interesting things. So we thought it would be a good idea to pick their brains and find out what's happening - whether it's good, bad or just plain ugly - and then share it with the world!

So if you have any questions or if you feel like sharing your own adventures, don't forget to leave a comment or email news@officebroker.com to join in.

Scotland’s Evening Times has reported on a £100m redevelopment scheme for Glasgow’s waterfront, delivering offices, shops and residential property whilst creating up to 2000 new jobs.

In July last year we blogged about the proposed new office building, One St Peter's Square, which was set to bring 270,000 sq ft of BREEAM Excellent office space to central Manchester in a modern landmark building.

Property Consultants Cushman and Wakefield released their annual European Cities Monitor which assesses the opinions of senior executives from 501 European companies – using the results to rank cities in terms of how good they are for business.

The most recent record attempt by James Cracknell OBE, British rowing champion and double Olympic gold medallist, was made possible with the help of IT company VOXIT Ltd, clients of the Gosport Business Centre.

An additional 42,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space at Liverpool Science Park (LSP) has gained funding, via a joint venture between the European Regional Development Fund and Liverpool City Council.

The Times has reported on research from property consultants CBRE, Savills and Murphy Mulhall that there has been a rise in the requirement for office space across the Irish capital, with take-up almost reaching pre-recession levels.

Clarendon Business Centres, which won officebroker.com's Business Centre of the Month Award in September 2011, has expanded its portfolio by launching a new business centre in Poole, Dorset.

Genetic disorders affect more than 30,000 babies each year with the associated health problems been the main cause of death for children under the age of 14.

In order to help raise awareness and funding for genetic disorders, serviced office provider Business Environment has been supporting the Jeans for Genes Day charity for the past 4 years with all of their business centre staff taking part.

A dedicated group of Regus employees in the US have got together to take on the annual Susan G Komen Race for the Cure event, to raise funds for vital research into breast cancer treatment.

Office supplies firm Viking have revealed that UK businesses could lose over £3bn in the coming months as a result of winter illnesses such as the common cold and flu – with dirty desks and contagious keyboards playing a big part in polluting our office space.

According to TheBusinessDesk.com, Binley Business Village has been acquired in a £4m sale and 25 year leaseback deal, which will see Archaylen Property purchase the site from ExtraCare Charitable Trust.

Flexible office space provider Fasset Ltd, which operates three high quality business parks in the UK, hosted the inaugural ARAMARK Southern Food First Forum earlier this week at its Langstone location near Portsmouth.

Formerly known as St Andrew's House, Portland Tower is a landmark 22-storey office tower in central Manchester that dates back to the early 1960s.

Business Environment, which operate 18 serviced office properties throughout the UK, have received excellent marks from their most recent customer survey.

The technology being offered by serviced office space provider i2 Office has played a major role in attracting new clients to its Glasgow offices, with the serviced office provider reporting that it has helped them to achieve an occupancy level of 85% since first opening its door in January 2011.

As the third quarter of 2011 comes to a close, officebroker.com prepares to publish the latest edition of its Serviced Office Review Series, a comprehensive set of reports which provide an unrivalled insight into the UK’s serviced office market across 13 regions and 7 city centres.

Catch up on all the latest serviced office news and views with our September round-up.