The lights are on, but there's no gossip at home
The Dark Ages of finance
There was some unintentional mood lighting at last week's National Housing Federation Finance Conference. As soon as a speaker from sponsor Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank mentioned free wine, the lights dimmed. And dimmed. And dimmed and didn't come back on again.

Bemused delegates were evacuated from the tent where the show was taking place, followed by exhibitors muttering darkly about insurance.

Something to chew on
Much is said and written about the "culture" changes that housing departments undergo when they become arm's-length management organisations: staff are supposedly imbued with a greater sense of purpose; decision-making becomes dramatically more simple; and, with more money than usual, work gets under way.

However, staff at Hillingdon's ALMO – Hillingdon Homes, which went live last May – have another reason for remembering their switch: apparently, the quality of biscuits in the office showed a marked improvement.

Men of the bench
The deputy prime minister is not one to be outdone, so when he heard that foreign secretary Jack Straw regularly holds court in Blackburn town centre, climbing onto a bench in the High Street to chat to shoppers about government policy, he knew it was time to take action.

In Blackburn on Friday to announce funding for the East Lancashire pathfinder, he gleefully leaped onto the famous bench and announced to bemused shoppers: "I'm John Prescott and I'm here to give East Lancashire £68m."

Hear, hear
Members of the ODPM select committee on housing, planning and local government must be ruing the day they decided to launch their inquiry into the effectiveness of the Housing Corporation. If their schedule for last week is anything to go by, they'll be sitting through whole days of evidence.

Committee members had barely finished hearing evidence on the corporation last Tuesday when they had to reconvene for a separate investigation into supporting vulnerable people. Given the weightiness of the subjects, I'm sure it was a day they'll cherish for a long time.

This policy is pants
Supporting People has been compared to many things, but never women's underwear – until now. According to Denise Marshall, chief executive of Eaves Housing, the patchy provision for women under Supporting People is similar to scanty pants: "It looks nice on the hanger but doesn't provide adequate cover."

Archers hits the bullseye

The Social Animal award for this week’s most opportunistic press release goes to the UK Timber Frame Association for drawing my attention to the latest storyline on The Archers. Apparently, Neil Carter and his wife are building their dream home using timber frame because the alternatives are so expensive and, as the association’s chief executive Bryan Woodley happily explains: “Any person can build their own high-quality timber-frame home for less than the cost of a similar house on the market.” Whatever next? Modern methods of construction on EastEnders?

Source

Housing Today