Social animal

The lesser-spotted ethical landlord

Housing is shooting up the political agenda: more money for social housing in the July spending review; Tony Blair citing housing as one of his top 10 priorities for a third Labour term; stability in the housing market cited as a key determinant as to whether the UK joins the euro.

So you would have thought that when chancellor Gordon Brown hosted a seminar on housing at the Smith Institute earlier this month, everyone present would have been pretty clued up. Sadly not. A representative of developer Land Securities bemoaned the company’s failed attempts to get more involved in housing.

His concern was that they couldn’t find decent landlords. “What we really need is to work with some good, ethically minded landlords,” he said. Now, where oh where would they find such strange beasts?

Those whom Corpy hath joined...

Sir George Young, Conservative MP and founder member of Acton Housing Association, presided over its merger with Cherwell last Thursday. Young suggested the new Dominion Housing Group might want to spread south to his Hampshire constituency, to compete with local boys such as Testway and Sovereign.

He also said he felt like a vicar at wedding although the happy couple were blessed by the Housing Corporation rather than God.

This led to inevitable questions about who was more powerful. A few of the quango’s messengers on earth were present but stayed strangely quiet on this question.

I’d like a big number please, Carol

Thinking of building a cutting-edge environment-friendly home, but worried about the cost? It doesn’t have to end up in a BedZED-style overspend, particularly if you follow the example of the INTEGER Project. At last week’s launch of the INTEGER publication Improving Quality Performance and Value in Housing, project director Alan Kell explained how it built the “Millennium House” in Watford four years ago for virtually nothing.

The trick was to get the BBC to film it for a Carol Vorderman show called Dream House. Suddenly, suppliers were delighted to donate materials. “The BBC said we’ll film it and suppliers will do it for free,” said Kell. “It didn’t quite work like that, but pretty much.” Move over DIY shows …

Drumroll please

We have been inundated with responses to the impromptu quiz set by Social Animal on 29 October. The answer to the ridiculously testing poser was that the legislation that became law on 1 October was the Disability Discrimination Act (Part 3).

The winner of Winckworth Sherwood’s Social Housing Law – A Practical Guide is … Mary Laing, vice-chair of Housing for Women. Congratulations to Mary and commiserations to the rest who entered – at least none of you got it wrong.