It’s coming to the end of 2022, and as the team at Marengo are beginning shut down for Christmas after our fifth year, we thought it an opportune time to reflect on the year we’ve had.  

And what a year…

Politically, we’ve had 3 Prime Ministers, 4 Chancellors, 3 Secretaries of State at DLUHC (4 if you count Michael Gove being in twice…) and the Labour Party is heading into the festive season with an opinion poll lead well into the double figures. 

It’s certainly the case that at times the Government was far from stable. The various scandals, resignations and leadership elections have led to an unprecedented period of churn in government, and at times there has been a distinct lack of direction in policy.

And a particular bug bear of mine, the turnover of Housing Ministers (see here for my grumble back in 2018), has continued. Since I wrote that blog, just 4 years ago – no time at all in planning and housing – we have seen seven housing ministers.  That’s fourteen since the Conservatives have been in government, less than one a year on average.

I do hope that our current Housing Minister can get on with working with the industry to deliver the homes that we need, despite the best efforts of some of her backbenchers. 

Marengo on the other hand, has had a brilliant year, and unlike the government have managed both stability and growth!

We were delighted to welcome Tom Selway, formerly of Cadence PR, into the fold as a Director in May, alongside his colleague Associate Director Simon Schofield. Both bring a wealth of experience, especially in residential and renewable energy projects across the West of England.  And then, in September, Jo Moss joined the company in a newly created role as Business & Operations Manager. Welcome all!

We hope that everyone has a much needed rest over the Christmas break, and after our last committee of the year (21^st December…) we will be putting our collective feet up before getting back to it in January.