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Closed Circuit: hockey stick homes
The Telegraph goes to the dogs, Julian Ashby takes a hockey stick to the sector, and the War on the Countryside resumes
Over here at Closed Circuit we’d thought all the hot takes on the housing crisis had been done, but we can only doff our caps to Telegraph columnist Tom Welsh for giving us some new insight on the issue.
A lack of affordable housing is causing, he claimed, the death of Conservatism. Because young people are so dissatisfied with the status quo that they are increasingly turning to Jeremy Corbyn’s promise of a new political way? No. Because young men are buying fewer dogs.
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Yes, you were right to read that sentence twice. No, it doesn’t make any more sense the second time around.
In the barmy article, Mr Welsh also draws a line from men aged under 34 still living with their parents to dwindling support for the Tories, although he adds: “There is some truth to the suggestion that this is a sad reflection of a crisis in masculinity.”
That Premium content subscription is clearly worth the dosh.
What was that about hockey, Julian? This was the pressing question on delegates’ lips at last week’s Social Housing Annual Conference.
The venerable chair of the Homes and Communities Agency Regulation Committee delivered a thundering warning to the sector about the perils of under-ambition, but left his audience bemused with his choice of metaphor.
“The Affordable Homes Programme is facing its usual end-of-year hockey stick,” he said.
In a straw poll of two people conducted exclusively by Closed Circuit, neither knew what Mr Ashby was on about – although one ventured: “I think it has something to do with climate change.”
After a quick Google search, Closed Circuit can inform bemused delegates that he was talking about a graph that is flat or with a downward trend, to mean the handle, followed by a sharp, steady increase corresponding to the ‘blade’ portion of the popular puck-beating device. So now you know.
There was a blast from the past this week as the former leading general from 2013’s #WarOnTheCountryside returned to the fray with a new salvo in his battle against hedgerows, cornfields, rolling hills and small mammals.
Nick Boles, former planning minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government dream team – which also included Grant Shapps and Michael Green – summoned up all of his best countryside-crushing spirit for his new book, Square Deal.
New towns, 500,000 affordable homes, compulsory purchase, use-it-or-lose it for builders – Mr Boles’ book has it all. Shame this would never have got near policy when he was actually in charge, but Closed Circuit applauds the general’s fighting spirit.
Send your juicy housing gossip to closedcircuit@insidehousing.co.uk
