I flew into London on the 10th of February. I got a job after two weeks and I didn't even really need to perform in an interview. It is a well paid job at too. The reason I got this job is because I have worked in a particular sector for at least four years. The sector is social housing.
It appears to me that in the mid to late nineties the central government came up with a scheme to begin management of council housing by non-council companies. I don't know much about this plan (and I've never met anyone who does) but I know that a company known as the ALMO was invented. ALMO stands for Arms Length Management Organisation. Unfortunately I am not an expert on ALMOs either, but I know that a number of London boroughs had ALMOs take over management of their housing stock.
Examples of ALMOs can be found here.
Decent Homes was also initiated somewhere in the last 10 years. Decent Homes is a scheme devised to make sure that every council house is up to a certain standard, in terms of structure, insulation and facilities. It is a scheme that will cost billions and billions of pounds and has the aim, in most cases, of replacing every kitchen and bathroom in every Council dwelling in the land*. Decent Homes was not limited to ALMOs, but it did result in a big injection of cash for the ALMOs.
It's a good sector to be in at the moment. Lots of money flying about. But is all this extra money benefitting the poorest people on this island, or is it just squandering of public funds?
*I'm not sure if that is the UK, or England and Wales, or whether it includes Scotland or Wales.
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