Sherwood - surely you should have asked what type of hallucinatory drugs the Scotchbrook manager was on!!

Of course many elderly people want to downsize. But the ones described by the Scotchbrook manager are either desperate to use their Freedom Passes - or they are in need of immediate psychiatric help.

Downsizing is largely about saving money - so why would you want to move into a wildly overpriced flat when you could get a home for half the price just round the corner? And if your working life is coming to an end and you will be spending more time at home, why would you choose to live in a noisy, cramped space next to a railway when you could enjoy space as well as peace and quiet just five minutes away?

Did he also explain that the reason that Scotchbrooks was shutting was nothing to do the downturn in housing sales (or a failure to sell the Berkeley Homes block) but because a wicked elf had put a magic spell on the shop which meant that customers turned into pumpkins as soon as they entered the premises?