It has been another eventful week here at Brightstar and at the time of going to press we are exactly one year old. Big thanks to the specialist lending community who have welcomed and supported us so well in our first 12 months of trading.

One of these supporters has been Andrew Bloom and Richard Deacon from Masthaven. We go back many years with these guys; in fact in a previous role Richard used to work for me. In the past 12 months they have received investment from The Pears Family, arranged a JV with The Saffron Building Society and perhaps most importantly, received their FSA permissions to do regulated bridging. As a business I find them uber efficient and extremely friendly. Last week they announced that they were entering into the refurbishment market with a product up to 65 per cent loan to value. Admittedly, not the first lender to do this but nevertheless another step forward in their business evolution and a positive news story. I was genuinely shocked at the level of criticism that this received from the various trade press message boards. Ok, so they aren’t first to this market but they are now in it, giving greater choice and increasing competition which has to be a good thing, doesn’t it? In a country devoid of ‘good news stories’ I never understand why we prefer to be critical about positive statements. Well done Masthaven I say!

Its Brentwood’s time again to appear under the national spotlight with the fourth series of The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) which is largely filmed near to the Brightstar offices. It will be great to have the hordes of teenage girls looking for ‘Mr Wright’ as well as a large number of paparazzi hawking the town looking for a those all-important ‘sexy shots.’ The Brightstar Boys may be featuring this time in a cameo role of loud, drunken extra’s so make sure you look out for us!