Closed circuit

Weston-super-Mare is the place to be on the Sunday before Christmas - if you’re a darts fan.

Darts superstar Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams will be leading an exhibition match organised by North Somerset Housing, to get more young people involved with the social landlord.

We thought you had to be a middle-aged man with a beard to love the sport - but as the resident involvement officer, Linda Jones, is a Welsh international player, it seems we were very wrong.

Tenant Services Authority chief executive Peter Marsh was heard praising the colour pink last week in the House of Commons.

Giving evidence to the communities and local government select committee, he spoke about ‘the power of pink lighting’, which is used to deter spotty teens from congregating in the street by highlighting their acne.

Mr Marsh used the lighting, which can be found in the London borough of Westminster, as an example of improvements to the wider environment in a hearing on life beyond decent homes. So was this a subtle attempt to show legislators that pink things - such as the TSA - are a force for social good?

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, was surprised to find out that he was chosen over former London mayor Ken Livingstone to speak at Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust’s celebration of its refugee housing and volunteering project, Reach In, earlier this month.

Along with the rest of the audience, he was informed moments before he took to the stand. ‘For those of you who feel cheated - I feel cheated as well,’ he joked.

The current crop of politicians may be permanently at each others’ throats, but there seems to be a more relaxed attitude to old foes among those who have left office.

Former Tory front bencher Michael Portillo told a CB Richard Ellis lunch last week how pleased he was to be joined by ex-communities secretary Hazel Blears recently - in the club of former future prime ministers.

Send all your juicy housing gossip to closed.circuit@insidehousing.co.uk