So the redoubtable Ed Balls has decided that it would be a good thing for the building and housing markets if the Coalition Government were to reduce VAT to 5% on housing repair, maintenance and improvement.

What a difference a couple of years makes.

The greenest Government ever? In your dreams, David Cameron.

I was talking to a chap who sells cement the other day, as you do. And what he said worried me.

Hands up who hasn't done this, or something very similar.

Much like the fabled curate's egg, the Government's Housing Strategy released on Monday is good in parts. But only parts.

Well those of us who thought that last week's Housing Strategy didn't go far enough found out why at about 12.30pm yesterday when that nice George Osborne stood up in the House of Commons and told that there's no money.

Does this Government know what it's doing when it comes to encouraging energy efficiency and moving the country towards a low carbon economy?

When the Coalition Government took over nearly two years ago its economic plans went something like this: "Let's cut everything we possibly can, blame it all on those Labour chaps spending too much, and then ease off when things get better in a couple of years. That way we'll be seen as the good guys."

The Green Deal ain't gonna deliver. As breaking news stories go, it's about as surprising as the one about the Pope being catholic and the bears in the woods.