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Closed Circuit: Sharma's formidable optimism
Alok Sharma shows off his formidable optimism, a senior civil servant makes a political slip-up and the DCLG gets over-excited
Closed Circuit gained new-found respect for housing minister Alok Sharma this week.
At the Savills Annual Housing Seminar conference in London on Monday, while addressing a packed hall of housing bigwigs and professionals, the minister said: “I know there are journalists in the room, but can I just have a show of hands – how many of you thought this was a really good Budget for housing?”
He was right – there were journalists in the room. Journalists who witnessed about eight people raise their hands.
“Ah, OK, yeah – the majority, that’s very good,” said Mr Sharma.
Achieving the government’s target of 300,000 additional homes a year by the mid-2020s is going to be a challenge; it’s good the minister is adopting such a positive mental attitude.
Civil servants are not known for making grand political statements, which is why it came as a surprise when Sir Robert Devereux, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) permanent secretary – broke cover this week. Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee session about Universal Credit, Sir Robert was presented with the case of a woman living in Westminster whose Universal Credit monthly payment doesn’t cover her rent. In response, Sir Robert said the government’s aim to make £12bn of savings leads to questions such as: “If we’re having people on benefits, should they be in Westminster and Kensington? Are there other options available?”
Sir Robert is shortly retiring, which might explain his decision to throw caution to the wind.
The new elected mayor for Northumberland, Newcastle and North Tyneside is to get housing powers, and not just any old powers, but “exciting new” ones, as a breathless Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) press release put it.
What exactly these will be remained a mystery. The release had only one further fleeting mention of housing, the DCLG didn’t know what the powers would be, nor did the Treasury, and none of the councils were very sure.
Eventually back came the answer that the mayor would be able to set up development corporations, but would have no powers over housing or spatial planning outside these. It depends what one finds exciting.
