“to reimagine the future of social housing”

it is the anniversary of this golden glow mixed by howard (from 2016). about 48 minutes in there's a song from musicians of bremen volume two. 

'the housing ombudsman in england is calling for an independent royal commission “to reimagine the future of social housing”'

well it will keep the lawyers and the 'independent royals' happy. have a long re-imagining. publish a report. file it away. job done. gongs all round. new years honours list. thanqew. 

now in some ways to re-imagine the future of social housing would be a good thing. its reputation has been blackened, the people who used it stigmatised as chavs, it is viewed as a failure to realise full possible value of the land it is on. 

privately rented accommodation has many of the same poor design/ disrepair/ difficult to heat problems but it is not subjected to anything like the same scrutiny or regulation. in many ways horsemouth views the entire strategy of tightening up regulation in the social housing sector as an attempt to further blacken its name. much of the disrepair is caused by a failure of government to fund social housing and local councils properly in the first place, by a parallel driving down of wage levels forcing tenants down into poverty, arrears, failure to heat their homes adequately, eviction, homelessness.

elsewhere alok sharma abstains on the government's new oil and gas bill. but that's not enough is it? no conservative MPs voted against it. in some ways horsemouth views it as the last hurrah of the dumb money. 

ok horsemouth will post this up now and see if he has more to say in the morning.