Social animal

Woolly thinking

Townplanners in Stroud don’t quite seem to have caught up with the arguments in favour of environment-friendly housebuilding if a recent decision is anything to go by. A Cotswold homeowner was left baffled when they rejected his plans for a house built with recycled timber and insulated with sheep’s wool. No doubt industrial concrete and asthma-inducing fibre insulation would have been fine.

Raising the bar

The English Partnerships development at Lightmoor Village in Telford is being modelled on Birmingham’s Bournville Village … with one crucial difference. Bournville was established in the Quaker tradition and to this day the village does not include a single pub. But residents of Lightmoor can rest assured they’ll be able to soak up more than the site’s no-doubt affable atmosphere – apparently two places have already been earmarked to be transformed into pubs.

Kicked into the long grass

Modern methods of construction might be the next big thing but one group is trying to persuade councils to get back to basics. The British Earth Sheltering Association aims to encourage councils and developers to go green by designing and constructing buildings that have been scooped out on below ground sites. But a flagship project to create an “upland hay meadow of international importance”, involving a three-bedroom property with grass on its roof at Hadraw in the Yorkshire Dales, seems to have run into problems.

The plans could end up being put out to pasture following objections from Hawes and High Abbotside parish council.

Shop ‘n’ save

Last week, Social Animal brought you the story of a hotline tenants could ring if they suspected a neighbour of making fraudulent insurance claims. Well, insurers aren’t generally known for their originality and sure enough another insurance company, Zurich Municipal, has already copied the idea and launched a similar “name and shame” scheme. It will, the company claims, save councils £1bn. The fact it will also save the company’s own loss-adjusting departments a few pennies too is obviously by the by.

Tai-ed up at the office

Plenty of housing workers show almost religious dedication to their work. So perhaps it’s appropriate that Cube Housing Association has teamed up with the Glasgow Buddhist Centre to provide its employees with free lunchtime t’ai chi lessons. Hopefully, the lessons will help create an enlightened and stress-free workforce. But could it be that Cube has other benefits in mind? After all, defaulters might think twice about falling behind on payments when they realise staff are trained in housing law – and martial arts.