You can say what you like about Boris Johnson (most people do – it never seems to bother him) but I think he might be onto something.

Earlier this summer, the Greater London Assembly’s environment committee floated a proposal for an investigation into home insulation schemes. The initiative came from an idea mooted by the supposedly bumbling, accident-prone Mayor Johnson, who had the bizarre idea that householders could be encouraged to install insulation by being offered a rebate on their council tax.

Bizarre? Not at all. And not half bad for a so-called bumbling, accident-prone, upper-class twit, I reckon. In fact, it’s a brilliant idea. Compare it with Gordon Brown’s half-baked ideas involving the waiver of stamp-duty on energy-saving zero-carbon homes. How many zero-carbon homes will be built over the next 10 years, I wonder? How many homes of any kind, given the current state of the market?

On the other hand, the council tax is an unwelcome burden for every homeowner in this country. I’m pretty sure plenty of us would welcome a reduction in the bill in return for a modest outlay which would in any case deliver annual energy savings estimated to average £200.

It’s a far more realistic idea than Brown’s. I’m beginning to wonder which one of these two individuals the bumbling, accident-prone politician actually is.

While on the topic of crazy ideas, last month’s right-of-centre Policy Exchange report announcing that northern cities are “beyond revival” provided some very welcome light relief from the gloom of the credit crunch.

I couldn’t help chuckling as the poker-faced authors of the report advised the residents of Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester to move south to London, Cambridge and Oxford. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? That’s probably where they were educated and they’ve never dreamed of moving away.

In my opinion, there’s never been a better time to move out of the overcrowded south-east to enjoy a better lifestyle further north. But then, as I live and work in Nottinghamshire and with roots firmly in Lancashire, perhaps I’m biased.

Finally, a rather good idea from the Government: in future, all public sector construction procurement must be based on whole-life ‘value for money’.

Life-cycle costing is one of those things, like motherhood and apple-pie, that is beyond criticism. But human nature dictates that purchasing decisions are more likely to be influenced by up-front costs than life-cycle costs. So a regulation which forces the public sector to do the right thing and take a long-term, rather than short-term, view is to be applauded.