"...and your speeches are all self-praise and--and--well, and gross exaggeration and-- and----" - "And gas," put in the Badger, in his common way.

One of my children is moving into a rented house on a bit of a deal. The landlord is a client of mine and the deal is she gets it rent free whilst she does it up. Anyway, she needs a new cooker. It has to be gas. Luckily an employee of mine’s husband is a plumber and he has a deal with a ‘CORGI’ registered blokey.

But CORGI seems to have disappeared and been replaced by the Gas Safe Register, run by (and I’ll give you one guess – yes you got it) - Capita.

This sent me to Wikipedia. The entry is a wonderful story of how the CORGI, the HSE and Capita seem to have colluded to destroy a working system each for their own profit.

There is also some wonderful nonsense about prohibiting competition to improve things, but the icing on the cake is this bit:-

“One of Capita's main challenges was to create a new 'Gas Safety' brand for the trade and public from April 2009. At that time, CORGI had over 93% public awareness across the UK. Despite having now been in place for over four years (2013), public awareness of the Gas Safe Register brand as the official registration agency for UK gas installers is still pitifully low, an issue which GSR seem to be doing little to address.”

There is a lesson in there somewhere, but quite what it is, I am not sure.

They own land! Give them money!

Spotted by BobE at Inside Housing:

A Gloucestershire council is developing its own mortgage scheme to help first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.

Cotswold Council plans to guarantee 20 per cent of the buyers' deposit so they will only need to raise 5 per cent to buy their first home. This should enable them to access lower mortgage rates by satisfying the requirement for 20 to 25 per cent of the property price that lenders commonly ask for.

The scheme is similar to the government's Firstbuy shared equity scheme, which also offers 20 per cent equity loans, but applies to purchases of existing as well as new properties.

Rosemary Lynn, the head of sustainable communities and housing at the council, said: 'We are conscious that it is very difficult for young people in the Cotswolds to get a deposit together for a house, especially when the typical sum required for this area is about £15,000 given that the maximum loan to value mortgage on offer is normally 80 to 90 per cent. This scheme would enable them to obtain a 95 per cent loan to value mortgage and it would make a big difference financially.'

The council is working with consultants Sector Treasury Services to find a partner lender and on the legal details of the scheme, which it intends to launch in the autumn this year.

The interesting part about this isn't "the heckling" but ...

Another one from the desk of Bob E:

Smith was about to deliver a speech on welfare and pensions reform when campaigner Willie Black began haranguing the MP, calling him a "parasite" and a "ratbag" for pursuing social security cuts that would leave "millions" of people homeless.

After Black, who had booked in for an overnight stay at the George Hotel to get into the event hosted by Capita, was escorted from the room, two disability rights campaigners also barracked Smith.  Protesters also gathered outside the hotel.

That would be the Capita who this week announced...

Capita acquires justice software firm STL

Capita plc has acquired STL Technologies Limited, which provides software and ICT to the criminal justice system, including courts and the police, and to asylum and immigration tribunals.

In fact things are so cosy between Capita and the MOJ that the MOJ has provided a glowing puff piece for the Capita website* and who knows Capita may do so well out of "changes to the justice system and devising new ways of monitoring and rehabilitating offenders" that MOJ  HQ gets renamed as CAPITA - Home of the Ministry of Justice

* http://www.capitasecureinformationsolutions.co.uk/products-and-services/pages/successstory-mojnoms.aspx (and do check out the "benefits" listing at the end - marvellous tack on item for the last benefit...)

Also this week Capita announced "event hosting" coming soon...

Capita announces one-day national conference "Developing Commercialism in Local Government"
Wednesday 19 June 2013 – Central London

Benefits of attending:

• hear from the parliamentary under secretary of state, Department for Communities and Local Government about driving local growth and entrepreneurialism throughout local government