Diary: A new challenger for Rowley’s record-breaking run?

At the end of September, as Lee Rowley became the latest MP to hot-desk as housing minister, Diary wrote: “It is hard to imagine anyone beating Marcus Jones’s record of just 62 days.” Yet, barely six weeks later Rowley is out – shuffled sideways to deal with local government. A fifth housing minister so far this year has been confirmed and the industry is left wondering, once again, if it was something it said. The running total is now 15 ministers in 12 years. Despite Lucy Frazer being confirmed in the role, at the time of writing the department still simply has a list of briefless ministers (what an image!). That is an improvement on last week, when those requesting confirmation were told to monitor ministers’ Twitter feeds. If we take Rowley’s stint from his own tweets announcing his status, he became a junior minister in the Levelling Up Department on 7 September, but it was only revealed (by tweet, naturally) that he had the housing brief on 20 September. He revealed his local government move on 4 November. This gives him a total of 45 days in post – a period technically known as a “Truss”. Even if we count his reign from his first briefless appointment at the department, he only clocked up 58 days, beating his predecessor’s run by a long weekend. A new record… but for how long? A fishy tale One of the most coveted gongs at the EG Awards last week wasn’t actually handed out on the night. Employer of the Year, the Best Deal award, even taking home the Outstanding Individual trophy – these are all fine achievements. But they pale in comparison to the award even EG’s editor was hoping to win: Best Footwear. The bar was set high back in 2019 when we scrapped the necessity to wear black tie in favour of letting everyone be fabulously themselves. For EG editor Samantha McClary, that meant gold, light-up high tops. And she was hopeful of a win this year, with some rather snazzy gold pumps. But, no. Ellandi boss Mark Robinson had other plans and netted the win with shoes that were off-the-scale good. Never before – and hopefully never again – will more than 700 of real estate’s finest be subjected to fish flops.  Eat your greens When you have a busy week of awards shows to attend and results to deliver to the market, sometimes you want to say no to the odd lunch invite. Too much to do, too busy, so sorry. But sometimes, just sometimes, you have to say yes. No matter how rammed your diary is. That was certainly the case last week when Derwent boss Paul William got a surprise invite from Buckingham Palace. No, he wasn’t picking up his OBE (not yet anyway). Instead, he was one of 200 luminaries asked to the King’s pre-COP27 lunch. Diary is shocked not to have been invited. In fact, we are green – with envy.  The Thrifty Games In this era of developers emphasising their net zero goals – and everybody sweating over rising energy costs – BTR operator Native Residential has come up with an innovative solution to aid tenants in reducing their bills. The operator has introduced an app to record the energy usage of each individual home in its Manchester scheme Kampus (not to be confused with the Christmas demon Krampus) and is pitting tenant against tenant in a friendly competition aimed at reducing energy costs. Residents can see their own and their neighbours’ energy usage and get workshops and tips from the operator on how to better conserve power. No prizes, just bragging rights – but with lower bills, and less energy wasted, everyone’s a winner. Although now we think about it, it does sound like the set up for an episode of Black Mirror… Off plan dead pan Deadpool Council planning meetings can create celebrities – just ask Jackie Weaver (“You have no authority here!”). But it’s unlikely that genuine celebrities will stoop to attending council planning meetings, even when their own schemes are on the agenda. Diary was disappointed, but not really surprised, that Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were absent from this week’s Wrexham County Borough Council planning committee meeting. Plans were approved for a 5,500-capacity stand at the Racecourse Ground, home to Wrexham AFC, the football club Reynolds and McElhenney bought last year. A few quips from the pair would have livened up what is a traditionally sober meeting. We’ll have to make do with a joint statement, which we’re sure they said in unison: “We would like to thank the planning committee for the positive decision they have made and all those who have been involved with our application.” Not exactly Deadpool 3,  is it? Share your tales from the quirky side of the property industry by e-mailing diary@eg.co.uk Photos © UK Parliament, Jonathan Hordle/Shutterstock, Moviestore/Shutterstock