Dashwood: Lord Mayors say David Beckham's Olympic speedboat dash deserves Freedom of the City Tony beds in to Hotel Hayward Former BP boss Tony Hayward and Amstrad founder Lord Sugar will soon be able to stay even longer at their favourite Mayfair members haunt, The Arts Club. Overnight, in fact. Dashwood hears the club backed by venture capitalist Arjun Waney and property investor Gary Landesberg will next month start work on a couple of "show bedrooms," before opening a full suite of 17 guest rooms over the top three floors of the building by the end of next year. The Arts Club won planning permission for the upstairs expansion at 40 to 40a Dover Street in February, but couldn't have started the renovations any earlier. An insider confirms management are still waiting for some of the leases of those companies who have been renting the planned bedroom zone as office space to "run their course." Credit ticks up for Lehmans assets Joe Gregory, the former president of Lehman Brothers, has $2.8m (£1.7m) in his pocket as he and his wife, Niki, start "a new chapter of their lives." That's the total raised at last Thursday's Stateside auction of the couple's antiques from their opulent Long Island home, where - unlike at Lehmans - Dashwood hears the flow of credit was abundant. One UK dealer, who prefers to remain anonymous, paid $106,250, or more than double the estimate, for a mahogany table from the reign of George II, while the top lot, a pair of George III satinwood tables, went to a private European collector for 50pc over the guide price at $305,000. Dashwood suggests Vince Cable needs to sharpen his intelligence network if he is to remain credible as the champion of local businesses. Cable's party planners at the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills dispatched invites to drinks with the business secretary on Wednesday at a restaurant right on their doorstep, The English Pig, without spotting that the Westminster enterprise has, as chef Johnnie Mountain puts it, moved on to "greener pastures." As has Cable's reception. Red-faced aides have pushed back the meet and greet to the New Year.