星空传媒

Perhaps the deputy prime minister has let his zeal for elected regional assemblies get the better of him; or maybe the massive cost overruns at the Scottish Parliament building have been on his mind. Whatever the reason, he certainly seemed to be, shall we say, making substantial savings with the truth during a recent address to the National Housing Federation conference in Birmingham. John Prescott stated that: 鈥淪cottish homes cost a quarter less to build than English homes.鈥� Sounds impressive. Yet when we tried to discover where the ODPM had got its figures from, we were met with a stony silence. Perhaps they were thinking about pre-鈥渇abricated鈥� housing?

Well appointed

Hearing that a couple of new faces are set to start at the Housing Corporation, my ears pricked up this week. Expect to be told later this month then that Stephen Hornby will be starting as the corporation鈥檚 director of procurement and new ventures. He鈥檚 worked as a quantity surveyor and project manager in the private sector before, although he has also held a position at a housing association.

But the second new guy has built up quite a bit of housing experience. Matt Leach, who will be the director of policy and communications, most recently worked at the ODPM where he was in charge of Mavis McDonald鈥檚 internal shake-up to better deliver the Communities Plan. Prior to that he was private secretary to former housing ministers Hilary Armstrong and then Nick Raynsford, so his housing knowledge should certainly be up to scratch.

Blind faith

For a long time I 鈥� and I suspect many regular readers of this column 鈥� have despaired at much of what passes these days for 鈥減olitical correctness鈥�. Here鈥檚 another example of how it has lost the plot. The manager of a community care centre in a predominantly Muslim area of Bradford was told by the council to put up blinds on the windows so as not to offend passing Muslim women who could see straight in. He duly spent 拢20,000 fitting them, only to watch in disbelief as Muslim women using the centre 鈥� no doubt hoping to let a little light into the now nocturnal rooms 鈥� went round and pulled the blinds right up again.

Bringing the house down

Having difficulty getting tenants to turn out to your meetings? Take a tip from the pros. In his first job regenerating run-down Leicester, Keynote Housing Group chief executive Tom Murtha drew record numbers of punters to a community meeting with a cunning bit of creative thinking. 鈥淲e knocked on doors saying: 鈥楾he council鈥檚 planning to knock your house down.鈥欌�� Murtha鈥檚 white lie did the trick 鈥� the meeting was packed. And the demolitions? 鈥淲ell, it was a possibility,鈥� admits a sheepish Murtha, 鈥渂ut only ever a remote one.鈥�