Poor old Kelvin Stacey, ex-Rank Organisation and now head honcho at Walsall Housing Group, is finding the world of social housing a little odd. His view of the transfer process, as told to the Northern Housing Consortium conference: “A council with nothing tries to sell something worth nothing to an organisation that has no cash, for a very large amount of money.” Jaded? World-weary? Nooooo!
Stink tank
During a speech at the customer excellence conference run by the Northern Housing Consortium last week, leadership guru David Taylor faced one of his toughest challenges yet. He can handle dissent. He can handle hard times. But could he handle the over-powering stench that engulfed the room while he was speaking?
Taylor showed grit and determination. He held his nose and calmly finished the speech, while all around were fleeing the room. The source of the pong? Apparently workmen repairing drains outside had made a mistake. I am reliably informed that it was not in any way a comment on the content of the speech.
Alarms and excursions
Chief inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate Denise Platt was cast out on the streets of Cardiff in her dressing gown last week. However, she wasn’t testing services for rough sleepers; the fire alarm had gone off in her hotel. Platt and her fellow delegates at the Association of Directors of Social Services conference in Cardiff had to wait for 10 minutes in freezing conditions – and a variety of states of undress – before being let back into their rooms.
One hand clapping
Arriving at a press conference on empty homes last week, Social Animal was greeted by – appropriately enough – an empty room. Was this a poignant demonstration of the wastefulness of unused property? Was this all a horrible joke at your diarist’s expense?
No, it was all down to a simple typo. The press release gave the press conference as being in City Hall in Victoria, not the Greater London Authority building on the other side of town. However, coffee and an interview at Ken’s glass palace smoothed over the glitch.
A cold Curry
David Curry, Conservative MP and co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on homelessness and housing need, was one of the few people at the Conservative party conference homelessness fringe meeting who remained quiet on the right of council tenants to buy their homes.
The reason for this uncharacteristic silence? The first he’d heard of the Tories’ proposals on the issue was when John Prescott’s shadow, David Davis MP, announced them to the conference.
Feet and two veg, anyone?
Source
Housing Today
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