It emerged that Housing Corporation Chief Executive Jon Rouse has been offered a new job as Chief Executive of the London Borough of Croydon.
Peter Dixon, Chairman of the Housing Corporation, said: "Jon has been great to work with over the past three years and Croydon is fortunate to have persuaded him to join them. When he joined the Housing Corporation we had a challenging agenda which he has risen to fully. The current profile of social housing and its increased prominence in both local and national thinking owe much to his energy and enthusiasm. We all wish him well and will miss him hugely."
Jon Rouse will be Croydon's sixth Chief Executive in 70 years. Aged 38, he will be one of the youngest top appointments in a major unitary authority. He succeeds David Wechsler, who is retiring after 37 years with the Council, the last 14 of them spent as Chief Executive.
Jon Rouse expects to take up his position in Croydon by mid summer.
The man who founded the successful Big Issue magazine, John Bird, is to stand as an independent candidate for the Mayor of London. He will challenge Ken Livingstone for the post in the election in spring 2008.
John Bird intends to run on a platform of "social inclusion," representing housing estates and communities and highlighting issues such as ghettoisation. He wants to tackle youth crime, particularly among London's black community, as well as making "social housing" the main priority of all regeneration.
In 1991, John Bird created The Big Issue with Gordon Roddick - husband of the Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick. The journal was designed as a method to help the homeless, and it now has a UK national circulation of between 150,000 and 200,000.