21 June 2002
Mavis McDonald, who spoke at the CIH conference in place of housing minister Lord Rooker, said advisers act as a sounding post for ministers in a way that civil servants cannot.
'It's true that numbers are growing but it's still very small compared with the whole of the civil service,' she said. 'Their role is clearly defined. Most civil servants are not worried about this at all.'
Following the reshuffle caused by the resignation of Stephen Byers, the ODPM includes housing and local government but, perhaps crucially, not transport, where the government has run into most trouble over 'spin'.
The ODPM decided at the last minute that Lord Rooker, who was appointed housing minister on May 29, should not appear at the conference in place of his predecessor Lord Falconer, who had accepted the invitation.
Some delegates were angered by this. 'The government keeps going on about health and education and then it fails to send a minister to a major housing conference,' commented one.
CIH president Richard Kitson said: 'It is a disappointment that we have just seen a total change in the ministerial team responsible for housing in England within a year.'
But McDonald, who was interviewed on the conference platform by a BBC journalist, said government reshuffles did not have to be damaging if the government continued operating against published frameworks and targets. 'You don't go back to square one each time,' she said.
PFjun2002
