He said the "right to move" was just an idea at the moment buthewouldpass a law bringing it into effect if the other measures did not succeed in increasing the mobility of tenants.
Kyle Watkins, a White House staff assistant who got one of the messages, emailed back that hewouldpass along the suggestion on but didn't know if it would go anywhere.
On questioning by the committee chair Louise Ellman he said that the future of the free bus pass for over 60s would remain, but didn't rule out changes on age eligibility.
That raises the possibility that he will write a middling decision striking down preferences in the case at hand but leave open the possibility that they wouldpass muster under other circumstances.
Sir Digby once called the unions "increasingly irrelevant", but when he was appointed by Mr Brown he said, despite past criticism of the government, it would be wrong to pass up the opportunity to help put business at the heart of a new administration.