Planning more
housing
It
looks as if the Government is girding its loins to “do something” about the
parlous housing situation. Developments both in the housing-for-dale
market and in the provision of social housing have intensified a sense of
crisis in the public mind. They clearly plan to enter the next Election
with a can-do agenda for
housing. But do they know what to do?
This
is my very own subject,
my having spent 1974/77 as Industrial Adviser
on Construction (much of which related to
house-production) to the Wilson/Callaghan Government. And I am sad
that the Government seems to have learnt so little from our earlier
experience.
For
the “housing problem” is an amalgam of several different problems, largely
unrelated. There are at least six,
and each will need separate treatment.
Hold onto your hats – because
each one of these will require you to address quite different ishoos…
-
Size of
total housing stock
-
Housing
Land Supply
-
Servicing land “for housing”
-
Rising
house-prices
-
Building of
housing for rent
-
Meeting special regional needs
The
task of bringing these together is massive, and difficult.
I know how to do it, because that was my job at the DoE,
under Tony Crosland. But I doubt if John Prescott, and the present
generation of civil servants, know where to start…
What do you think? Drop me a
line
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