Where shepherds gossip by night

It’s all done with computers

Many people who work in housing may feel that they take their jobs home with them but surely none can match the dedication of architect Sir Terry Farrell.

Apparently he likes nothing more than to put his feet up and play the computer game Sim City, which is advertised as giving players the chance to “create and control the most life-like metropolis you can imagine”. Could this be where he got the idea for turning east London’s Thames Gateway into a verdant haven?

Wake-up call

Spare some change for a double gingerbread latte? That might become the call of homeless people in Camden if Novas Ouvertures’ latest bright idea works out. The registered social landlord is planning to refurbish the 100-year-old Arlington House hostel in the north London borough. Novas is considering letting space in the building to a business that would employ some hostel residents. Contenders include a hotel, art gallery and a museum but the RSL’s dream tenant would be … Starbucks.

By any means necessary

Apparently, you should be paying close attention to the debate over the comments by Sir John Stevens, outgoing commissioner of the Metropolitan police, that householders should be able to use “whatever force is necessary” to deal with intruders in their homes.

Top legal beagle and Housing Today columnist Nick Billingham of solicitor Devonshires has warned that housing officers could get mistaken for intruders if they use their rights under a tenancy agreement to break in to a house to carry out repairs or gas inspections – putting themselves at risk of aggression by territorial tenants.

Arch enemies

The Millennium Dome – set to be useful for the first time ever when it hosts this year’s Crisis Open Christmas – isn’t the only famous building to be used for a good cause. Deputy prime minister John Prescott recalled turning over Admiralty Arch, the impressive gateway to the Mall in London’s Trafalgar Square, to be used by unemployed people.

This didn’t go down too well “with the admirals”, according to Two Jabs – but as a former seaman himself, perhaps he derived a little pleasure from getting one over on the Navy’s top brass?

What’s your poison?

If there were a prize for exaggeration of the year, it would have to go to Alan Walter of Defend Council Housing. Addressing a committee of MPs, he compared stock transfer ballots to the disputed Ukrainian general election – because voters in both don’t get a fair choice. Say what you like about transfer, nobody has been poisoned because of it.

Crow bar

A three-year-old cockerel called Hector could face an antisocial behaviour order after several neighbours complained to the council about excessive crowing keeping them awake at night. One particularly sleep-deprived resident of Arundel in West Sussex even sent the bird a poison pen letter saying: “I wish bird flu would strike you out.”

And that’s not the only fowl play hitting the headlines: a Norfolk pig and geese farmer has also been ruffling feathers. He received an ASBO after his porkers strayed onto neighbouring farms and gardens.

Source

Housing Today