Housing minister Grant Shapps has made his most important speech to date, to social housing practitioners at the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
He turned in an impressive performance about how the new Government will let go of power.
He started with a joke. “So,” he said. “Another year, another housing minister. At least this time the electorate had something to do with it.”Referring to the nine different housing ministers in the Labour regime, he said: “There has been a long tradition of housing ministers coming to CIH only to find that they’ve been moved on by the following year’s conference.
“If a week is a long time in politics, then a year has proved an eternity for recent housing ministers.”
He said that each Labour housing minister had talked about targets, how money had to be spent and the latest pet project. “I’ve shadowed these ministers as they’ve been pulling levers, pushing buttons and blowing whistles … to no effect,” he said. “And I’ve waited impatiently to be here.
“So what do I want to do now I have my hands on those levers?
“That’s simple: I want to hand them over to you. Whether you work for local government, a housing association or are a builder. And whether you are a landlord, tenant or home-owner.
“I want you to have the power to make the decisions you know are right for your local community.“I believe that the more I let go of power the more you can achieve.
“Politicians and governments do not have all the answers. So instead I am going to place my faith in you.”
He said targets simply hadn’t worked and he strongly queried the idea that the Tenants Services Authority might be value for money. He said:“This quango spent close to £100,000 on lobbyists to lobby– amongst others –the Government.
And that seems frankly ill-judged.”He added: “Getting things done will be harder in these tough economic times. There will be difficult decisions. The Budget made that clear. When the country has been living beyond its means, I am not going to stand here and promise what can’t be delivered.
“But things will still get done. Yes, it will be tough, but the sky will not fall in. We are not reducing expenditure just to save money, although the fiscal deficit is huge. The Coalition believes in a smaller state and a bigger society.”
Shapps ended by saying that the new Government will stop setting up quangos and will not burn cash on consultants or invest in expensive IT that doesn’t work.
