Election publicty rules raise their head in Oldham

The Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election (which concluded yesterday) has thrown up a familiar issue for those who work in or with the public sector, albeit in a rather unusual way.

The Guardian and Labour Party blogs were yesterday reporting that Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell had apologised for a series of events which led to complaints that purdah regulations were breached.

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Busy Christmas break for communities department

Self build - homes of the future?

Ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) today revealed what their teams had been up to during the Christmas break.

Secretary of State Eric Pickleswritten statement to Parliament outlined his department’s recent undertakings, which included a new initiative to help local communities revitalise disused pubs and social clubs, taking action to make local government more transparent and launching plans to support people to build their own homes.

Meanwhile, Communities Minister Andrew Stunell also set out plans today to bring a proportion of the country’s 300,000 empty homes back into use.

As someone who works in housing, including recently with the ‘self build’ industry, and is looking to possibly build a house, I will be watching these developments with interest.