Paw's-length management organisation
Get it into perspective
Delegates at last Thursday's housing market renewal conference in Birmingham were given an insight into the rollercoaster existence of a council executive in a regeneration area. Eamonn Boylan, deputy chief executive of Manchester council, said he'd had to deal with newspaper reports that one of his streets in Beswick was "the worst in Britain". His response? "That's ridiculous. That street isn't even the worst in Beswick."

Sorry, we wanted next door
Think you've got trouble with subcontractors? Consider yourselves lucky. A firm of demolition cowboys in Phoenix, Arizona, were no doubt readying their defence lawyers this week after knocking down the wrong house. Ignoring the boarded-up shack across the street, they instead levelled Hollywood diva Jennifer Lopez's lovingly tended family home, which she had occupied for 30 years. The company's excuse? "The people we hired, hired some people." Better go over those references with a fine-tooth comb.

LDF – WTF?
Recently appointed housing minister Keith Hill has come clean about the perils of being the new kid on the block. At the Association of London Government's Summit this weekend, he admitted to not having known what LDF – local development framework, obviously – stood for when he came across the term in a briefing paper. It must have given his civil servants a good giggle. I wonder if they'll start coming up with their own abbreviations to bamboozle the boss

Seduction the EP way
Shock news: English Partnerships behaves like a drunken student out on a Friday night, according to its director of corporate strategy Trevor Beattie. This is because it sometimes spends too much time negotiating land transactions and getting bulldozers onto a site. Confused? Beattie explained himself: "While we are very keen to concentrate equally on all aspects of developing a relationship, we can't get rid of a overwhelming interest in the physical."

Academe takes on Corrie
Take note, telly lovers – a British institution is under threat. Coronation Street has been attacked by a university professor from Salford who thinks the long-running soap is bad for the city's image. Les Battersby and Vera Duckworth bad for your image? Have you ever …

Opiate of the masses
Carmarthenshire council has been forced to rip up rows of flowers after it was discovered that they were opium poppies. Residents thought the blooms were brightening up the town but Carmarthenshire county recorder Richard Pryce, a keen botanist, discovered the poppies could be used to make narcotics.

Bijou residence, off-street parking

London’s prospective homeowners may no longer have to resign themselves to a dream home in the capital’s less salubrious suburbs. Last week, a garage in fashionable Primrose Hill, NW1 – home to such luminaries as Jude Law and Ewan McGregor – was sold at auction for a measly £75,000 and seven slightly less luxurious versions without a roof went for a bargain £30,000. Low-cost homeownership gurus might want to start trawling the auction houses for ideas.

Source

Housing Today