Fashion victims

The reinvigorated right to buy has got a few people in the sector all nostalgic for the shoulder-padded glory days of the 1980s.

Not least among these is Sir Steve Bullock. When asked by MPs at a select committee evidence session whether he saw the policy as a throwback to the Thatcher era, the London Councils’ housing chief harnessed his inner Gene Hunt, the rough diamond police officer from TV show Life on Mars. ‘Fire up the Quattro,’ he replied (a favourite Hunt quote), quick as a flash.

Closed Circuit hopes he didn’t then down a couple of lunchtime sharpeners, before kicking down a door and nicking a few villains.

London & Quadrant has had an uncomfortable time recently with its plans to redevelop a former dog track in east London.

The landlord has faced a barrage of criticism from MPs and a well-organised group of campaigners calling themselves Save Our Stow.

You would have thought, then, that fellow housing association chief executives would be sympathetic towards L&Q boss David Montague over the controversy.

Apparently, though, some of Mr Montague’s chief executive colleagues in London have taken to making barking noises when they see him. It sounds like woof justice to us.

When arm’s-length management organisation Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing sent out a tenant survey, Closed Circuit assumed it was expecting the usual plethora of minor complaints and comments.

But according to local news reports, when answering the seemingly innocuous question, ‘if your home was not cleaned properly, what was the problem?’, one tenant wrote: ‘Floorboard rotten and dead cat underneath boards in bedroom’. As ‘failures to clean properly’ go, this certainly beats failing to dust the high shelf.

Closed Circuit hopes the tenant in question had not chosen to wait for a survey to address the question of the rotting feline.

A KNH spokeswoman chirpily said she was aware there was still work to do to improve tenant satisfaction. At least the rotting boards should make it easier to gain access to the cat.

Send your juicy housing gossip to closedcircuit@insidehousing.co.uk