The wrath of Hayes

Six Conservative MPs have hit back at claims by a National Housing Federation spokesman that the party’s housing document The Right to Own is “completely deficient” and “comes close to playing the race card”. The six signed an angry letter to The Guardian, published on Saturday. The Tories also attacked suggestions by the Chartered Institute of Housing that the policy document hardly mentions homelessness or decent homes.

It seems the Tories’ John Hayes was so incensed that he telephoned the CIH demanding it retract its comments as they were inaccurate. Sources in the CIH’s Coventry HQ tell me that a message was received from Hayes but that “his protests have met with a slightly frosty response” and that it stands by what was said.

Tories firing blanks

The Conservatives don’t exactly make it easy on themselves. In addition to the criticism of The Right to Own, they also copped some flak for failing to properly photograph the launch event.

The big guns had been rolled out to fire some salvos at the government: party leader Michael Howard, local government shadow Caroline Spelman and housing shadow John Hayes. Bright lights all, yet some not-so-bright spark sent by Tory HQ forgot to attach the flash when taking their photos. Cue a blank film and blank expressions all round.

A Bronx tale

When London housing association Circle 33 set up its website, it no doubt hoped to harness the power of the information superhighway to help its tenants get in touch and perhaps reach a wider audience. It was not expecting, however, to receive a transfer request from a prospective tenant currently residing in the Bronx who decided that he’d had enough of the Big Apple. “We have no idea how he found our website,” says a bemused member of the lettings team. So will they be offering him a place? No such luck – the online form he filled out was for existing tenants only.

Charlie has all the answers

With Labour’s hard-fought Housing Bill nearly through the parliamentary wringer, it’s reassuring to know that everyone is resolutely on-message. Or at least it would be if someone could just copy Tony Blair in on the relevant memos.

At last week’s event to mark the anniversary of the antisocial behaviour unit, the prime minister was one of an all-star panel answering questions from the floor, alongside erstwhile housing minister and long-standing pal Lord Charlie Falconer.

A query about the licensing of private sector landlords provided the perfect opportunity to plug the bill, but he had only this to say: “The Housing Bill … the Housing Bill will do exactly what, Charlie?” Falconer neatly dealt with the query – what else are friends for?

Sea change for stock transfer

Defend Council Housing may be many things, but one thing it certainly is not is dull. At its annual conference in the
Trades Union Congress building in London last Friday, entitled Winning the Fourth Option, high-profile anti-stock transfer MP Austin Mitchell said the choice presented to tenants was “a con”.

“What the councils say is, ‘If you vote for stock transfer you’ll get new kitchens designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and bathrooms designed by Jacques Cousteau’.”

Source

Housing Today