Star date: 31st December 2010

THE SALFORD STAR MARY BURNS AWARDS: DAY 8

THE BUBBLE'S BURST AWARD

Well the housing market bubble certainly burst in Salford this year, with loads of wonderful regeneration houses and flats unsold and empty. But this award relates more to bubbles and houses in the South of France.

So which couple got over-close in the hills near Cannes?

 Ladies and Gentlemen. THE BUBBLE'S BURST AWARD goes to…

Please do a drum roll and click here…

TOM BLOXHAM of Urban Splash and SIR BOB KERSLAKE ex chief exec of the Homes and Communities Agency.

Yes, Urban Splash alone could certainly be a contender for The Bubble's Burst Award, losing almost £40million over the last two years according to its accounts. However, Urban Splash projects are still getting public money chucked at them, none more so than in Chimney Pot Park, where the upside down houses will have had almost £1million in public money again this financial year.

This joint Award, instead, goes to Tom Bloxham, the chief of Urban Splash, and Sir Bob Kerslake, ex chief exec of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), and now a Permanent Secretary at the Department of Communities and Local Government working for the ConDem Coalition.

In 2008 Sir Bob took up his £223,300 post with the HCA, which handles multi billion pound budgets of public money for affordable housing. And it was a little over two weeks before he took up his post as designated head of the HCA, in March that year, that Sir Bob was photographed attending a lavish party in Tom Bloxham's `Bubble House' in the South of France.
 
The photos were published exclusively by Salford Star this year, with the caveat that the "Salford Star wishes to make clear that it is not inferring any link between Sir Bob Kerslake partying at Tom Bloxham's opulent bubble house in the South of France and Bloxham's company Urban Splash receiving, we estimate, over £60million in public subsidies for many of its failing housing schemes.

"The Salford Star is just questioning whether it was appropriate for the head of the government's social housing programme to accept hospitality from a potential recipient of HCA funding weeks before he took up his designate post as head of the HCA."

Meanwhile, Tom Bloxham told Property Week in May this year "There's more scope for the private and public sectors to work together more closely"

We bet there is. Especially when Urban Splash is hovering up public funding for its ill fated schemes.…

Ladies and Gentlemen. THE BUBBLE'S BURST AWARD goes to TOM BLOXHAM and SIR BOB KERSLAKE

Applause.

Full details on this story and more photos click here…

See the other Mary Burns Awards here and follow the links at the end of the feature.