By Alistair McIntosh, HQN CEO

If you want to understand everything that’s wrong in housing, watch the DLUHC committee yesterday. It’s as bleak as Happy Valley but there’s no end in sight to this long-running series. Change was supposed to be on the way after Grenfell. But there’s a severe lack of urgency. Here’s the link Parliamentlive.tv – Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee

First, the good news: Kwajo told us that some landlords are listening to him and fixing things. That’s great. He was energetic, articulate and committed. Gives you hope for the future. Also, the questions from the MPs on the committee were sharp. They’re on top of the job.

But the whole thing fell off a cliff when Baroness Scott of Bybrook came to speak for the government. The most you could say for the Baroness was that she was pleasantly confused. It was a cringeworthy performance worthy of Alastair Sim starring as the headmistress in the St Trinian’s films (black and white versions). Scott’s inability to answer any questions at all was impressive in its own way. The highlight was the sheer variety of her mispronunciations of the word ‘ombudsman’. Perhaps she thought it was some sort of dodgy metric term that Brexit was supposed to abolish.

Scott had no idea when the government was going to get round to responding to the DLUHC report that raised serious concerns about the regulation of social housing. You’ve really got to feel for Michael Gove if this is the calibre of people he has to work with. And how come Baroness Scott is on the payroll instead of Kwajo? So much for claims of meritocracy.

Sandwiched between Kwajo and the Baroness came Jonathan Walters, the stout yeoman of the RSH. Without flinching he took the blows that should have been raining down on Grant Shapps. For it was Grant that designed the system whereby the RSH can’t talk to tenants and must rely instead on what boards tell them. As night follows day, it leads to blunders like Rochdale Boroughwide Housing getting top marks for governance not long after the death of young Awaab.

It’s just too easy for landlords to pull the wool over our eyes now. So, it was refreshing to hear Jonathan set out the new powers he’s getting. Inspection is returning and the thresholds for punishing landlords are coming down. So far, so good – but none of this happens till April next year.

And that’s a big problem. Can we wait that long to find out the truth about all our landlords? What happens, heaven forbid, if something goes badly wrong in the meantime? It’s been a long, long time since Grenfell.

Kwajo wants action this day – do we? Will we live to regret dragging our feet?