A new Communities and Local Government ministerial team was been announced in the Cabinet reshuffle:
Margaret Beckett MP joins Communities and Local Government as Minister of State for Housing, replacing Caroline Flint.
Margaret Beckett was most recently Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from May 2006 until June 2007.
Before entering Parliament, Mrs Beckett completed an engineering apprenticeship, specialising in metallurgy, at AEI Manchester. She went on to work as a Metallurgist at Manchester University.
She served as a Government Whip in 1975 and was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science in 1976, serving in that position until 1979.
Between 1979 and 1983, Mrs Beckett worked as Principal Researcher for Granada Television. Mrs Beckett was appointed shadow Minister for Social Security from 1984-1989, shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1989-1992, and shadow Leader of the House from 1992-1994. She was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party between 1992-1994 and became Leader between May and July 1994 after the death of the Rt Hon John Smith MP.
She then served as shadow Secretary of State for Health from 1994-1995, and shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry from 1995-1997.
Sadiq Khan MP joins as Minister for Community Cohesion and the Fire and Rescue Service, replacing Parmjit Dhanda.
In July 2007, the Prime Minister appointed Sadiq a Minister in the Government Whip's Office where he had special responsibility for managing Ministry of Justice legislation.
In early 2007 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rt Honourable Jack Straw MP, who was then Leader of the House of Commons.
Sadiq was also previously a visiting lecturer at University of North London and London Metropolitan University, and a former governor of South Thames FE College.
Since 2004 he has been Chair of Governors of the Country's first purpose built Islamic ethos primary school.
Board members for the Tenant Services Authority were announced by Housing Minister Iain Wright.
For the first time, tenants in social housing will have a voice at the heart of government, as two tenants are appointed to the Board of the new Tenant Services Authority (TSA):
Julie Fawcett, who has been a social housing tenant for 28 years. She is currently a non-executive member of the Board of the Housing Corporation.
She has also been chair of the Board of governors of a primary school in Stockwell, a lay visitor to Lambeth Police Stations, and elected director to the Brixton Challenge and Board member of the Waltham Forest HAT.
She works in a community centre based on the estate where she lives.
Dennis Rees is Treasurer of Derby Association of Community Partners, Chair of Derby Homes and Chair of the National Federation of ALMOs. He has been involved with tenant participation in Derby for the past 14 years.
He has spoken locally and nationally about the benefit of ALMOs to tenants, local authorities and Government Ministers. He is a tenant inspection advisor to the Audit Commission.
Dennis holds no other public appointments.
Others appointed to the TSA Board were Anthony Mayer (Chair), Julian Ashby, Jim Coulter, Pauleen Lane, Sheila Drew Smith and Donald Hoodless.
The TSA was established to ensure tenants have a stronger say in how their homes are managed and will have powers to take action when tenants are not receiving a good service.
The Board of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the body driving housing and regeneration in England, were also announced.
It will comprise Robert Napier (Chair), Kate Barker, Professor Peter Roberts, Bob Lane, Candy Atherton, Margaret Fay, Shaukat Moledina, Don Wood, Ian Robertson and Dru Vesty.
The Homes and Communities Agency combines the regeneration programmes of English Partnerships, the investment programme of the Housing Corporation, the Academy of Sustainable Communities and some delivery functions from Communities and Local Government.
Pinnacle introduced an innovative learning and development scheme, offering staff an opportunity to gain National Vocational Qualifications NVQ) relevant to their work.
Pinnacle employs over 1,500 people and is a provider of public service solutions, delivering housing and facilities management and grounds maintenance services to organisations throughout the UK. This scheme will initially see Pinnacle offering NVQ Level 2 qualifications in cleaning services or horticulture. Each qualification is equivalent to 5 GCSEs.
The courses will be offered on a voluntary basis to staff and will be run by Pinnacle People. Most learning will take place on the job and people will be assessed to see how well they are performing against set tasks over a period of around six months.
The initiative reflects the organisation's new people-centred business stream, which focuses on tackling worklessness by improving employment prospects and skills development within housing estates and communities.
Following the first phase of this scheme, further NVQ qualifications will be offered in housing, business administration, management, customer services, higher levels horticulture and cleaning, literacy and numeracy, and english as a second language.
The programme is being part-funded by the Learning & Skills Council, as part of the Train to Gain initiative.
A specially written rap song about working together was one of the highlights of Guinness Northern Counties full day staff workshop on dealing with antisocial behaviour (ASB).
Around 100 GNC staff from around the country attended the event, which focussed on the importance of partnership working, early intervention and prevention.
The overall aim was to improve the service the Association provides to customers affected by ASB, neighbour nuisance and harassment. Specific sessions were held on areas such as witness support, working with the police, working with mental illness and the impact of diversionary activities to deter ASB.
Guest speaker was Peter Jackson, Managing Director of the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group and the afternoon saw everyone joining in on a rap song entitled Together We're Better!.
Guinness Northern Counties responds to approximately 1,000 incidents of ASB or neighbour nuisance a year.
