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The Right to Post

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NEW HOUSING POLICY KLAXON! We thought ministers weren’t allowed to announce new policies during an election, but dear old Gavin Barwell has bucked the trend, and the law, by unveiling plans for new ‘letterbox accessibility regulations (houses and flats)’.

In a policy which will surely become known as the Right to Post by the Tories and the Letter Tax by the opposition, Mr Barwell says he will order a repositioning of all letterboxes if he is returned as an MP and housing minister after 8 June.

It could be that he was just making a joke about the difficulties of stuffing leaflets through awkwardly placed post holes while out on the campaign, or it could be a serious policy launch. Closed Circuit is not the one to ask.

Nonetheless, it polled well on Twitter. “Please ban the ones inexplicably at ankle height – they all ought to be mid-door!” said Joe Armitige.

“Horizontal, and not two inches off the floor. Between two and four feet high. Did I mention horizontal? I did. Great. H-o-r-i-z-o-n-t-a-l,” said David Dean.

Don’t rule out a late amendment to the Housing and Planning Act.

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Blogger Joe Halewood worked himself into a froth this week about an Inside Housing story announcing that the Scottish National Party (SNP) had failed to back our campaign call to end rough sleeping by the end of this parliament.

“Just in case anyone in #ukhousing has any doubts where @insidehousing overt political bias is,” ranted Mr Halewood, alongside a clip of the article which used the red line tool on Microsoft Paint to demonstrate his point.

Indeed, the SNP’s refusal was in the headline and the Conservatives’ refusal buried in paragraph four! Evidence of a secret bent towards the Conservatives in the Inside Housing news coverage? An attempt to manipulate the election by sending subliminal signals to a readership of housing professionals whose combined vote would count for less than one electoral seat?

No. In fact, the SNP announced it wasn’t backing our campaign on Tuesday. The Conservatives did so last week, which we’d already reported. Inside Housing comes from the biased mainstream media school of journalism which advocates reporting the new stuff first.

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Pop quiz, housing fans. Is solving London’s housing crisis:

A) A marathon

B) A sprint

Confused? Just reach for any housing announcement of any kind issued by Sadiq Khan’s team ever. Closed Circuit is yet to receive a press release from City Hall under Mr Khan which doesn’t contain the answer: solving the housing crisis is of course a marathon, not a sprint.

We think this means the mayor is going to tackle it by donning a Buzz Lightyear outfit, raising some cash for charity, downing two litres of Lucozade, hitting the wall at mile 15 and being taken to hospital as a precaution by St John Ambulance. But we’re not sure.

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