Housey housey

Against the backdrop of homelessness, rising numbers of rough sleepers, families placed in temporary accommodation, a dramatic fall in the delivery of new homes, especially affordable ones, rising rents and a steep decline in rental properties, the spat about which Cabinet member gets which grace-and-favour mansion is particularly unedifying.

The row broke over Keir Starmer's granting of Dorneywood, a substantial 18th century farmhouse in South Buckinghamshire set in 215 acres of private parkland, to Rachel Reeves as her country retreat. As Prime Minister, the bestowal of tenure is entirely in Starmer's gift but much (perhaps too much) has been read into his choice of his Chancellor rather than his Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, as the beneficiary.

During Tony Blair's premiership use of the house was granted to his Deputy, John Prescott. After paparazzi snapped Prescott playing croquet on the lawn while Blair was in the US dealing with the Iraq invasion, the house was handed over to the Chancellor, Alistair Darling. There is thus precedent for both the Deputy PM and the Chancellor having use of the property. 

The controversy now is whether, in gifting it to Reeves rather than Rayner, Starmer intended to snub the latter (they are rumoured not to be close and she is certainly much to the left of him). Reeves has already taken up residence in her official London home, 11 Downing Street, where she has lost no time in having the urinal removed from her office loo and installing paintings by and of women. How much all this cost the taxpayer is yet to be revealed - it may take a FoI request - but, as the first woman to occupy the post in 800 years, we might cut her some slack.

No, what sticks in the craw, especially at a time like this and with a supposedly socialist government in office, is that such lavish properties are still countenanced as part-and-parcel of government and continue to confer status and prestige on the ministers who get to occupy them. We are living in the 21st not the 18th century and such pieds-à-terre maintained and staffed at vast public expense* for only occasional use, are anachronistic at best. And there are a number of such properties dotted about the Home Counties.

Chequers, the PM's country pad, is a handsome Grade I listed 16th century manor house, also in Bucks, set in a highly-secure park with formal gardens and its own heated swimming pool. Chevening House in Kent is the grandest of all the government grace-and-favours. Reputedly designed by Inigo Jones and greatly extended in the 18th century it is also a Grade I listed building, with surrounding gardens, pleasure grounds and a park listed Grade II. Unlike Dorneywood and Chequers it is not an official residence as such but is usually reserved for the use of the Foreign Secretary and often used for government conferences.

1 Carlton Gardens is the Foreign Secretary's official London abode. It is a very grand classical Nash-designed Grade II listed town mansion overlooking The Mall and St James' Park. As Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss didn't want to live there and nor, it seems, does the new Secretary of State, David Lammy. It is alleged to be worth £25 million - a snip in such a smart neighbourhood surely? Another former official residence was a flat in nearby Admiralty Arch, once used by John Prescott as Deputy PM. The whole building was acquired on a 250-year lease in 2015 for £60m by the Hilton chain and is due to open next year as a Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel. 

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the term grace-and-favour originates with Niccolò Machiavelli who, in The Prince, his textbook treatise of 1513 on how to wield power, wrote (in Italian, obviously) "Princes should devolve on others those matters that entail responsibility, and reserve to themselves those that relate to grace and favour.” This may have been sound advice in the age of absolute monarchy but in a supposedly modern liberal democracy...?

Unfortunately, nothing much changes over the centuries when it comes to the exercise of power. The democratically-elected British Prime Minister, while governing in the name of a constitutional monarch, still has at his disposal medieval reserves of patronage derived from the Crown. The modern PM carries the responsibility but is greatly assisted by also being able to dispense the favouritism. In other words, he holds both the carrot and the stick.

The first minister of the Crown to hold the title 'Prime', Sir Robert Walpole, was offered 10 Downing Street as his London townhouse in 1732 as an outright gift by King George II but the canny Walpole declined it on the grounds that it should pass to subsequent postholders in perpetuity. In reality, he didn't want the expense of the upkeep - a wise decision as it transpired, given it was a jerry-built speculative development which has been a money pit ever since. 

10 Downing Street remains the property of His Majesty’s Government and its registered legal title is held in the name of the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. In this government that is none other than Angela Rayner (vide supra).

I do hope she doesn't harbour a grudge.

*Okay, so these houses were gifted to the nation and are owned by trusts but you can't tell me the government doesn't shell out a fortune in overheads such as staffing, security, running costs, hospitality etc.

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