Property News · January 9, 2017

The Guardian view on the housing crisis: right to rent | Editorial


For too long councils have been unable to build for rent. The housing white paper should bring them in from the coldThe scale of the housing crisis is now as great as it was in 1951. That was the year in which Harold Macmillan, then housing minister, made his famous pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year. His success in achieving it helped pave his way to Downing Street. But decisions he made then can now be seen as the root of both the current critical shortage of homes and the matching inflation in values which so distorts housing policy. This is what the much-delayed housing white paper – due before the end of the month – has to tackle.In Macmillan’s haste to meet his eye-catching commitment 66 years ago, many homes were built to inferior standards. In the later case of Ronan Point, the 1966 London tower block that collapsed catastrophically two years later, speed of construction overwhelmed the safety and security of the people who lived there. Just as significantly, it was during Macmillan’s premiership in the late 1950s that the private sector overtook the public as the nation’s leading housebuilder, for the first time since 1939. Public sector housebuilding remained significant for 20 years, but never regained its pre-eminence. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…The Guardian view on the housing crisis: right to rent | Editorial

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