Seeing red

It was, of course, delightful that John Healey kicked off his speech to a packed National Housing Federation conference with a reference to an Inside Housing cartoon – even if he did say that he was ‘deeply disappointed’ with it. Apparently, we made the grave error of depicting the Labour housing minister with a blue tie. Given the NHF was portrayed as a dog, I’m not sure why he is complaining.

Anyway, that bit of light banter aside, he got onto the hard political sell. There was a lot about the importance of government in spending money to lift the country out a recession and the message that the Conservatives wouldn’t have done the same. Also, a reminder of the £1.5 billion he has brought into the housing sector, including money that he won from other departments. Mr Healey is keen to convey that he is on the housing sector’s side.

He also tells everyone about the credit crunch, which I hope they already know about. I start looking at the enormous cardboard microphone dangling over Mr Healey’s head and wondering whether he asked for the background lighting to be changed to red for his speech. Now he’s talking about the fact there has been a recession…

But then we get to some real announcements. First is the requirement for all housing associations building with government grant to offer apprenticeships. Which is all very well – but will there be jobs for them to go to afterwards? The woman next to me shakes her head vigorously, so I don’t think this idea is going to sit well with everyone. Next is the news that they will be increasing the Homes and Communities Agency grant for homes that associations buy homes from people facing repossession and rent the homes back to them, to allow for more repairs.

There is a bit of name-checking of individual housing associations to make them feel special. And Peter Marsh must be feeling a bit better – after Grant Shapps’s blow against the Tenant Services Authority in the morning, John Healey says that the TSA is ‘emerging as a tough champion for tenants, with a very important job to do’.

Finally, we get to the questions. The theme is people asking for reassurance and John Healey promising lots of things for the next 18 months – which is as long as the current spending commitments lasts. Eventually, the chair of the session asks what will happen if (when?) Labour don’t win the next election. No bullish reaction from Mr Healey. Instead, he looked rather weary and said he’d be housing minister as long as he could.

Reaction from the audience was muted – five seconds of applause -  and the feeling afterwards was that Mr Healey seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. A sharp comparison with Mr Shapps, who can blithely discard his notes and talk tough, while not needing to make any definite pledges.