Diary enjoyed reading all the coverage, this week, about the WFP phenomenon – work from pub, in case you missed it – but have to confess we don’t understand all the fuss. After all, we’ve been doing it for years. It stands to reason that, as temperatures drop and remote workers remain wary of putting the heating on, they see the appeal of pooling resources in a suitably hospitable environment.
So, cheers to the nation’s pubs for offering innovative deals where patrons can beaver away in their local hostelry for around £15 a day, often including unlimited coffee and even a lunch thrown in. Bottomless beer, we imagine, can be negotiated privately. It makes it tempting to grab your computer and say, let’s go to the Winchester and wait for this all to blow over. Any pub chain looking to take best advantage of this trend is going to need a jingle. Might we suggest the following (which required less adaptation than Diary expected):
Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you’ve got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
All those nights when you’ve got no lights
The gas bill’s in the mail
And your laptop battery
Is just about to fail
You’ve had enough of the cold and murk
Sometimes you want to work
Where everybody knows your name
And they’re always glad you came
You want to be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same
You want to work where everybody knows your name…
Is Rowley a sour PUSS?
For a long time, housing minister has been a position with little job security… but at least it had status. Not so, now, it seems. Previous housing ministers have been ranked as ministers of state, making them second only to cabinet ministers. However, Lee Rowley, the latest to hold the office, is a parliamentary under-secretary of state (PUSS), one tier lower and the most junior of junior ministers. Quite a come down from the days before the coalition government, when the housing minister attended cabinet. Since 2010, the only housing minister to do so was Esther McVey, who held the post for less than eight months between 2019 and 2020. Perhaps it is simply an oversight, rather than a deliberate downgrading of the entire sector.
But it comes at a cost for Rowley. Being a minister of state tops up an MP’s £84,114 salary by a handsome £31,680. Being a paltry PUSS only adds £22,375, barely enough to keep one in boots. But perhaps this is an attempt to “trim the fat”. When Michael Gove was levelling-up secretary, there were three ministers of state and two parliamentary under-secretaries at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Now there is one MoS and four PUSSes. That is a saving of £18,610 a year. With all those tax cuts to pay for, every little helps.
Homeworking with a difference
In the midst of the cost of living crisis, young professionals are moving towards bill-saving residences, including co-living developments and studio apartments. The co-living provider Dandi has gone the extra mile in aiding residents through this tough time by offering them part-time jobs in their own developments. A PhD student living in Dandi’s Wembley development has been hired to oversee their co-working room, signing residents in and out of the facility. Another occupier, who daylights as a cook, has been given the chance to use the development’s kitchen to put together a culinary night for the residents of the building, with all the proceeds going to her bank account. Charity starts at home, they say – perhaps careers do too?
Are you sure it’s good to talk?
If you need to get hold of Knight Frank chair William Beardmore-Gray, do not bother sending him a WhatsApp – he’ll leave the message on read, if he reads it at all. An email is not much better. For the three-decade plus Knight Franker, it is all about face-to-face communication, or at the very least voice-to-voice. Speaking with EG this week about the agency’s 80-plus new graduates, Beardmore-Gray praised the fresh thinking the cohort is bringing to the firm, but bemoaned the young generation’s insistence on text and email in an industry as personal as property. “We say to our people: don’t type, talk,” Beardmore-Gray said. “The fact is, your clients don’t want an e-mail, they don’t want a text, they want you to get on the phone. You must get out there and talk to people, particularly when times get tough. That human connection is really important.” Diary cannot help but feel he may be swimming against the tide. As countless internet memes attest, there is only one thing worse for the current generation than having to make a phone call… receiving one.
Kicked into the long grass
The corridors of Westminster ring with echoes of the past. There is talk of austerity, only now it is not called austerity, it is called “balancing the mini-Budget”. Cabinet ministers are in open revolt against the PM and each other, only this time they do not have the excuse of being from different parties. And another echo drifts from Number 10: “Cut the green crap.” From what we hear, the PM is determined to scoop out any environmental legislation, regulation and policy promises that do not “directly contribute to growth”. Biodiversity net gain? Scrap it. Water quality? It can wait. Solar power? Not in my back field! Unless it comes with considerable capex already committed, the E in your ESG is as unwelcome as a Greenpeace protester at a party conference. Although, anyone who thinks “green” and “growth” do not go together has clearly never rewilded their garden.
