Working in one of housing’s quangos at the moment must be a bit like being in a soap opera - except when it’s more like Dr Who or a play by Samuel Beckett.
The story so far: two new characters have appeared on the square and they want revenge. Grant and Eric (who really ought to be called Phil) reckon that John and Gordon took some right liberties when they were top dogs and now it’s time to make things right.
In previous episodes Boris has been scheming to grab power from Sir Bob, Peter knows there’s a contract out on him and Steve’s disappeared with nobody to take over.
Things got a little clearer this week with Grant Shapps confirming to Inside Housing that Peter Marsh’s Tenant Services Authority (TSA) will indeed be scrapped and its functions transferred to the Sir Bob Kerslake’s Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Mike Biles’s Housing Ombudsman.
That leaves the HCA looking an awful lot like the Housing Corporation. Except that if London mayor Boris Johnson gets his way it will lose its London region, which accounts for half its funding - unless it is about to lose all its funding anyway, of course.
Over at the Audit Commission, the inspectors are running out of things to inspect. Their boss Steve Bundred has left and Eric Pickles won’t sanction the salary it wants to pay his successor. Comprehensive area assessment has been scrapped and housing inspection work comes from the TSA, which itself doesn’t know what’s happening.
Meanwhile, the lenders are waiting in the wings. Since they’ll be putting up most of the cash for the soap to continue, Grant and Eric have be sure to keep them sweet.
All of which leaves hundreds of people responsible for funding, regulation, inspection, tenant empowerment and complaints, regeneration and land assembly wondering what on earth will happen next. Even more uncertainty looms as they find out where they’ll be working and how many of them will still have jobs.
Which brings me back to Dr Who and Samuel Beckett.
Fans of the last of the Timelords in general and the Cybermen in particular may find the way that the TSA is being ‘deleted’ slightly suspicious. Do the new masters at Communities and Local Government all wear mobile phone earpieces by any chance?
And fans of the Irish writer may find parallels in his best-known work. In Waiting for Godot, the title character never actually appears but a similar sense of limbo ensues. In this new version, there won’t be much more Waiting for George - he’ll be here on Tuesday - but things may still be in limbo even after the Budget.
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