STRUTT & Parker’s Canterbury Office is booming, not closing. According to the agent, reports that Strutt & Parker is to close its Canterbury office are wrong. In fact, the Kent office of the national property agent has been enjoying a run of record profits. Ralph Crathorne, partner in charge of the Canterbury office, said: “I don’t know where this story came from, but I do know that it is 100 per cent wrong.

“The simple facts are that we have been involved in land transactions covering a greater area than those handled by any other agent in Kent over the last 18 months, and we’re currently advising on about 60,000 acres of farmland, equivalent to 10 per cent of the agricultural land in the county,” he said. "We have opened an outstandingly successful new homes department. Why on earth would we close an office doing that level of business?”