More of a Jaffa Cake fan, myself
Looking at the 'totality' …
Not everything went the government's way last week. Although Hutton and top-up fees grabbed the headlines, you will also have noticed the discreet dropping of the government's plan to dock benefit from antisocial tenants. Of the 300 councils and housing associations who expressed an opinion, 80% voted against the idea.

A resounding defeat, you say? Nothing could be further from the truth. By counting each of the 211 signatories to a petition in support of the proposal organised by MP Douglas Alexander, the government came close to claiming another moral victory by announcing a final result of 45% in favour, 53% against.

That takes the biscuit
One lucky resident of Stuart Street East in Manchester pocketed the tidy sum of £36 on Monday morning: all thanks to John Prescott's taste in biscuits.

Locals had held a sweepstake into which biscuit the deputy prime minister would choose to dunk in his tea when he visited the street. The tension mounted as, after a good quarter of an hour, Prescott had not been tempted. On the way out, though, he grabbed a digestive, securing £36 for one delighted dweller.

Another graduate of Smallville High
Housing minister Keith Hill hinted at hitherto undisclosed superpowers at last week's select committee meeting.

Asked if he had visited Birmingham to encourage the council's faltering attempt to meet the decent homes standard, he said: "Let me reassure you that I do not have to be in a locality in body in order to be there in spirit." That's reassuring but what was his spirit up to, I wonder, during Camden's arm's-length management ballot?

Everybody needs good neighbours
Thinking of installing a communal TV aerial on your new development? Think again.

Sussex's answer to Victor Meldrew, 87-year-old Francis Spalding, has effectively blocked his neighbours' access to TV by refusing to let the communal aerial, which is attached to his house, be fixed.

"My neighbours make a nuisance of themselves," says the charming Spalding. "One of them I call the plonker from Plonkers' Green. Another woman is Swaggy Arse." There's no news on what they call him.

Tonight's Best viewing
It's been a tough week for BBC journalism. But help may come from an unexpected source. Lord Best, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has offered this stunning idea for a documentary: "Choose three low-income households and send in a team of financial advisers to work out what they're entitled to. That would reveal the conditions people have to live under and the complexity of the system." Next week: Supporting People the Musical.

What an accolade

Barnet’s cabinet member for housing, Brian Salinger, has become something of an internet star. The Tory councillor features on a website that uncovers the growing problem of mattresses being dumped in public places. The imaginatively named www.streetmattress.com shows 105 of Cllr Salinger’s pictures of offending ex-beds and heralds him as one of the world’s “magnificent seven” mattress photographers.

Source

Housing Today