Making a beeline for the gossip pollen
Exterminate! Exterminate!
Dustbin men in one London borough could be in for a shock. The council – which must remain nameless – is using remote-control wheelie bins fitted with cameras to capture antisocial residents on film. This strategy has apparently resulted in several successful antisocial behaviour order applications. So next time you get the eerie sensation that you're being watched, it may not be just a load of old rubbish …

Blind leading the blind
News of one high-profile Harrogate conference casualty has –belatedly – reached my desk. Peter Taylor, managing director of John Laing Partnerships, was seen sporting head bandages on the last day of the conference, having collided with a tree the previous evening.

There was, apparently, an innocent explanation. During a games evening for selected clients and staff, someone managed to direct a blindfolded Taylor away from the green open spaces of Yorkshire and into the trunk of a tree. Maiming one of the bosses – how's that for teambuilding?

Also featured at the John Laing Partnerships' games night: geese herding. It'll be all the rage soon, trust me.

Sorry, what was the question?
Supporting People is not often the subject of gags, but SITRA's Nigel Rogers came up with one. Lord Palmerston once said there were only three people who understood the Schleswig-Holstein question. One was dead, one mad and the third – Palmerston himself – had forgotten it. Supporting People is similar said Rogers, who cast himself as the mad one. So, who's dead and who forgot?

Sale of the (last) century
The National Housing Federation has solved refurbishment problems for all its members with a single awesome masterstroke. The federation has signed a deal with quality high-street retailer Argos to allow a 5% – yes, that's 5% – discount on all Argos products for member housing associations.

Look out for social housing tenants on an estate near you brandishing stripped-pine pine furniture and the finest Elizabeth Duke jewellery. It is not yet clear whether NHF members will be sent out half-size biros and scratchy paper forms to complete the full 1980s shopping experience.

All the news that's [BLANK]
Housing professionals are welcoming the government's increasingly transparent approach to housing. Joined-up policy. Real-time information. Culture change. It all makes wonderful reading, particularly the government's obvious desire to keep the sector informed at every step.

But perhaps the next time the ODPM feels like transmitting the press release "Reserved for WHite Paper/a" with no other content whatsoever, it shouldn't bother. We'll struggle on without it.

From breezeblocks to sunblock

Lobster-red builders are as much a feature of summer as ice cream and traffic jams on the way to the seaside. But housebuilder Lovell plans to make this a thing of the past. It is trying to reduce the number of sunburned builders on its sites in a bid to prevent skin cancer and is distributing sunblock to its workers to avoid the spectacle of the peeling labourer.

Source

Housing Today