<b>Tasty morsel </b><br> Does anybody actually make their fortune out of retirement housing? The answer to that long-running question is being answered in the leafy, well-tended lanes of Oxfordshire around the Wallingford HQ of Beechcroft Developments.<p></p><p> When Wimpey grabbed Laing last year, Beechcroft was one of the tasty morsels left on Laing books - and Greenfield hears of a stampede among bidders desperate to take the upmarket retirement homes specialist off Laing&amp;’s hands as soon as possible.</p><p> Obviously Beechcroft&amp;’s go-getting md Christopher Thompson is right in there at the base of the scrum, putting together an MBO. But don&amp;’t discount a glorious return by company founders, kipper-loving Guy Mossop and wily Henry Thornton.</p><p> Holed up in his luxury villa halfway up a Swiss hillside, Thornton has opted for a curiously low profile in recent months.</p><p> But the big surprise is the large number of outside contenders - including some &amp;“fairly hefty-sized companies&amp;”, according to one insider - and specialist local firms who reckon that million pound boltholes for retired colonels and diplomats from Cobham to Cuddesdon are already big business.</p><p> Expect a deal on Beechcroft to be done and dusted by early summer. Laing&amp;’s minority stake in Octagon, worth upwards …