Wrasslin' gossip from the jaws of the housing crocodile
Chivalry is not dead
Never let it be said that John McHale, chief executive of Knowsley Housing Trust, is not a man of the people. While recently completing a "back to the floor" day with one of the association's plumbers, McHale spotted a damsel in distress. The distraught woman had been locked out of her house and McHale sprang into action.

Using all his nous as a native scouse, John soon had the lady safely back in her house. "All in a day's work!" he says modestly. But sadly for McHale, he is unlikely to get the credit he deserves from Knowsley tenants for this selfless act. The woman in question was an owner-occupier.

England 1, Network 0
England may have come off the rails against France last weekend in Euro 2004 in Portugal, but players and fans can rest assured that on their return to Blighty, work on their new home at Wembley will be continuing apace.

However, this is not such good news for Network Housing Group, as its staff have been informed that they will all have to move to a new HQ a few hundred yards down the road. Their present office is apparently in the middle of the intended new approach to the national stadium and has to be demolished.

Building bore homes
Kate Barker, eminent economist and author of the report on housing that has rocked the country's tabloids, made a frank confession to delegates at the CBI's Building More Homes conference.

At the start of her speech, Barker revealed that it was the 11th time she'd spoken about her review of the UK's housing supply and admitted she was "getting slightly weary" of giving speeches about it because there was a "risk of boring" those who'd heard it all before.

Luckily for listeners, though, she persevered with her spiel, promising that where possible she'd expand on areas that were "a little more interesting". If only all conference speakers were that considerate.

Who needs Friends?
The ODPM select committee's inquiry into the Housing Corporation is turning into riveting entertainment. With English Partnerships' chairman Margaret Ford and chief executive David Higgins both in attendance for the regeneration quango's evidence session, MPs took the opportunity to subject the two to a cross-examination on EP's work.

Then, interrogators joined with interrogatees to condemn English Heritage for complicating developments by listing banal – and distinctly unlovely – site features. According to the Partnerships partnership, items saved for future generations despite their questionable significance have included a Greenwich gasometer and a ventilation shaft close to the Blackwall tunnel.

No room at the top

It’s not just homeless people who’ve suffered because of the Harrogate accommodation crisis: a few chief executives have fallen foul of the great rooms shortage too. Two years ago Colin Wiles, chief executive of King Street Housing Society, became one of a select band of housing’s top brass to spend the conference in a tent after being unable to find a room. This led Social Animal to wonder where else people have bedded down during housing’s favourite jamboree … send your tales of irregular sleeping arrangements to the usual address.

Source

Housing Today