The Tories have tried to jazz up their conference hall this year, after accusations that the whole thing was becoming a bit robotic and boring. It’s fair to say that this has had mixed results. One of the exciting developments is the use of panel discussions between ministers, which is supposed to encourage greater audience participation. Members in the hall can submit questions using the conference app, and the panel then answer the most popular ones. This morning’s session with Housing and Planning Minister Esther McVey, Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi and Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry offered Tory activists a lively – and at times unintentionally unsettling – insight into their plans to build more homes and rejuvenate the high street.
McVey has quite an unusual turn of phrase, and in her enthusiasm to extol the virtues of modern pre-fab houses, ended up suggesting that the Tories were entering a new era in architecture where homes were 3D as opposed to entirely flat, and where architects now used computers, which must have come as a shock to RIBA.
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