The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has just published a new contract seeking consultants on housing. It says:
“With a new Mayoral term and a new national government in 2024, there is a renewed focus on fixing the housing crisis. To do so requires a seismic national and local effort, in close collaboration with communities and with a long term strategy to establish the fundamentals needed to deliver on this mission. For our part, Greater Manchester is seeking to be a city region which puts housing first in public service and policy.”
In order to “establish the fundamentals” Burnham’s authority is teaming up with the Greater Manchester Race Equality Panel to “seek fresh insight to inform a strategic approach to correcting racial inequalities in the social housing and homelessness sectors; and specifically, intersections which are a factor in driving disproportionate homelessness among people from black and minoritised communities.” Word salad worth £75,000…
For that you could:
Central and local government launch hundreds of these kinds of pointless consulting operations every year. The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”