Pootler

  I live near the Paddington Arm of the Regent’s Canal. Over forty years I have used it ( and many other canals) for cycling, running and canoeing. What happens to them matters to me, and presumably others who enjoy ‘the quiet waters by’. (I had to get in my first ever quote from a hymn! Brownie point?).     The waterways used to be under the wing the state, but were ‘privatised’ into the charitable arms of the CRT in 2012, with a dowry of land and old ancillary buildings. Because these didn’t produce much income, they were also given an annual grant to tide them over during what it was hoped would be a transition into a fully self-funded organisation. Now, the CRT is also able to negotiate contributions to improvements from firms developing adjacent land, through the Town Planning process. Some of the estate they inherited clearly has value, but a lot of it hasn't and I don't get the impression that the CRT are good at wringing cash out of it.   Little Venice  Over that period

  UPDATE : It is widely recognised that housing in South East England is too expensive and we are failing to bring forward enough land for development. Recently, there have been some political baby steps towards towards a regime that will allow public agencies to acquire the necessary land at something close to its value in its current use, rather than being held to ransom by landowners greedy for an unearned windfall. This general argument remains relevant though...… Do you want a break from the wind and rain-lashed countryside hereabouts, preferably somewhere with more than the bleak view of bare street trees from your living room window? Transform yourself, shut your eyes and think of Point Gourde, a small but perfectly formed peninsula in Trinidad, an emerald in a sapphire sea, with a neat yacht harbour at Coral Cove. Amazingly, this sleepy, sunny little corner of the world played a role in creating our housing shortage here in Southern England. I refer, of course, to the matter