Election Battlefront II

How’s your head for heights? Closed Circuit tends to feel a bit queasy on the upper tier of a sports stadium, so we probably wouldn’t be up for the challenge taken on by Chartered Institute of Housing president Julie Fadden last week.

Ms Fadden walked around the edge of the roof of the CN Tower in Toronto – 356m above the ground.

Why, you ask? We do know that it looked terrifying and Ms Fadden was raising money for homelessness charity Crisis through her escapade.

You can donate via her JustGiving page.

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Our beloved housing minister Gary Barlow faces quite a serious fight to retain his Croydon Central seat.

The minister holds the seat by a majority of less than 200 votes and faces a real battle against Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. Which, based on the polling, will probably result in a majority of about 10,000 for the Conservatives, but still. Drama.

Anyway, Mr Barwell is not taking any votes for granted, tweeting that he tried to persuade one of his sons to get involved in his campaign this week. “I can display a poster but can’t make a donation – I’m saving for Battlefront II,” the young lad responded.

A boy with his priorities in the right place.

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Interesting names for new housing associations have been something of a talking point in this column over the past couple of weeks, and with that in mind we welcome VIVID to the sector.

Formed through the merger of First Wessex and Sentinel, it formally launched on Monday.

Its name is a little strange, but no worse really than the other open-a-business-buzzword-dictionary-at-random school of branding which most associations tend to go for. What we are confused about is the insistence on all capital letters.

Usually this denotes either an acronym or shouting. Does it stand for something like Very Important Very Impressive Developments? Or Vastly Ixpensive Villas in Dunbridge?

These seem unlikely, so we’re going to assume they intend their name to be shouted. With that in mind, WELCOME TO THE SECTOR, VIVID.