Flood alert

Until now pop star Shaggy’s main contribution to housing debates has been to stress the importance of remembering whether or not you have given your girlfriend a spare key if you are cheating on her.

But last weekend he drew attention to wider issues at the Leeds Reggae Concert where he was performing on the Unity Housing Association stage. It is the first time the event has been sponsored by a local business.

And, for the record, Closed Circuit thinks that the events outlined by Shaggy in his number one hit sound so stressful that it is probably a better option not to cheat in the first place.

There are some bureaucrats out there who are taking a very pessimistic view of climate change and rising sea levels - or at least Closed Circuit hopes so.

A trio of tower blocks in west London are having new penthouse flats added and they had to have a flood risk assessment carried out before they could be built.

Despite being 24 storeys and 80 metres up, there is apparently a risk that they might end up under water. Should we be heading for the hills?

There was panic in the streets of South London last week amid suggestions in the Daily Telegraph that a social landlord had banned hanging baskets from tower blocks.

Not so, according to Richmond Housing Partnership which told Inside Housing the story was completely false.An RHP spokesperson said: ‘It’s not true. We were simply asking that large objects causing obstruction be removed, certainly not hanging baskets.’

Residents can now rest safe in the knowledge that their potted plants and window boxes are not on a housing association hit list.

Haringey’s arm’s-length management organisation was quick to rush out a press release after it took part in a peer review scheme of housing estates together with other London boroughs.

The panel of tenants who examined Homes for Haringey’s properties praised their standard. One tenant on the panel, Lily Evans, said the standard of estates was ‘one of the best so far’.

All good news then - but Closed Circuit has yet to receive releases from other councils who were peer reviewed - there’s no need to be shy.