All articles by Steve Norris
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InsightTories are failing on the home front
If anything epitomises this government’s lack of commitment to housing, it is surely Lee Rowley’s appointment as the 16th housing minister in 13 years. In his case, it’s his second time in the job, because he was Liz Truss’s choice for the 49 days she was in No 10, so ...
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InsightIt’s time for a change at the top
Last week’s two by-elections were terrible results for the Conservatives. It’s true that if Reform UK’s vote, which attracts some hard-right Tories, had been added to their vote they would have very narrowly won in Mid-Bedfordshire.
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InsightIs the HS2 project going off the rails?
There has been much talk in the past few days on two highly contentious issues that will have a profound impact on the country generally.
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InsightTreasury creates false economy
There’s a very splendid brass plate on the door of 10 Downing Street, but it doesn’t say ‘Office of the Prime Minister’.
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InsightGood riddance to Boris Johnson
By any standard, these have been some of the most extraordinary recent days in British politics.
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InsightSoho Estates' Steve Norris on the housing political battleground
I make no apology for returning to the residential market this week because what both major political parties are saying is now significantly different.
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InsightGove’s cladding solution is brutal
I’ve always thought of housing secretary Michael Gove as one of the brightest men in politics. He is credited with radically reforming the Department of Education. He did great work at the Department of Justice, putting right many of his predecessor Chris Grayling’s catastrophic mistakes. And in his time at ...
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InsightSoho Estates’ Steve Norris on grade III listings
Designer and TV presenter Kevin McCloud is a legend. Which of us doesn’t watch Grand Designs just to see how much grief couples go through to build the house of their dreams?
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InsightHas Gove got it wrong this time?
Readers of this column will know that I have a special place in my heart for that most agile and effective of ministers, Michael Gove.
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InsightBrace for the impact of real austerity
In 1947, as he was about to present his Budget, Labour’s Hugh Dalton, the then chancellor of the exchequer, let slip to an old friend: “No more on tobacco; a penny on beer; something on dogs and pools but not on horses; increase in purchase tax, but only on articles ...
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InsightHunt takes charge as Truss lingers
They say a week’s a long time in politics and boy, this has been one of those weeks.
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InsightTruss will take on the Treasury first
Only two days after kissing hands with her late Majesty, Liz Truss found herself facing an unprecedented period in our history during which politics largely disappeared from our national consciousness.
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InsightLet’s pray Truss succeeds as PM
So it’s obviously Liz Truss. Unless some extraordinary gaff derails her, the foreign secretary is nailed on as our next prime minister.
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InsightWill party voters pick the right PM?
It was Harold Wilson who coined the immortal line that a week is a long time in politics, but even he would have been shocked by the speed of events since Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid resigned from the government and between them precipitated a tsunami of resignations that even ...
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OnlineNo one can call Michael Gove idle
Say what you like about the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, but Michael Gove certainly hasn’t been idle.
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InsightCity megaprojects hit last stop
It was kind of Mark Wild, the Elizabeth line chief executive, to finally open it this week on my birthday. It’s a project first conceived over half a century ago and that I promoted as a minister, but was nearly killed by the Treasury in 1994.
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NewsGove is a serious change agent
In my next life, I want to come back as a government sign writer. Politicians (and yes, I confess, I was one) appear to believe that changing the name somehow of itself solves perennial challenges.
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InsightCrunch time looms for Johnson
I’ve never been Boris Johnson’s greatest fan, but you do have to cut the guy some slack.
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InsightWe’re living in dangerous times
I doubt that many of us could have conceived that as we entered 2022 it would not be the virus that filled our media but the very real threat that an increasingly paranoid dictator in Russia could have seriously raised the threat of nuclear war.
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InsightBoris is a party pooper for the Tories
“I get it and I will fix it” was the prime minister’s response to Sue Gray’s damning report asserting “failures of leadership and judgement” over the antics of No 10 and the PM himself in what we now refer to as Partygate. The question, of course, is whether that is ...
