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Tag: housing strategy

New towns, greater homeownership and localism heavy: a possible Labour housing strategy?

New towns, greater homeownership and localism heavy: a possible Labour housing strategy?

Business Secretary Vince Cable has in recent weeks upped the debate on house building and yesterday called together a mix of top folk from across the housing spectrum to chat about ideas for financing more homes. It’s encouraging. It indicates that the Government is eager to improve the wretched state of house building. But it’s also worrying. Last November the Coalition launched a “radical and unashamedly ambitious” housing strategy for England. What of that?

Figures show we are just not building enough homes. It is that simple.

Figures show we are just not building enough homes. It is that simple.

The latest official house building statistics to emerge underline the massive task ahead for the Government if it is to meet its promise of boosting English house building rates to a level above that achieved before the recession. It was in September 2010 that Grant Shapps ambitiously announced this “Gold Standard” against which he, as housing minister, would be judged.

The Housing Strategy: Was that it?

The Housing Strategy: Was that it?

There’s little doubt that we need radical solutions to build more homes. There is a broad consensus for that view, leaving aside supporters of Malthus, the Daily Telegraph anti-house-building campaign and a few others. There’s little doubt also that the issues are complex and we need a strategy rather than one big idea to save the day. But unless I am very much mistaken the 88-page Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England probably doesn’t amount to a strategy…

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Government housing strategy holed below the water line

Government housing strategy holed below the water line

As if Gordon Brown hasn’t enough on his plate at the moment, this morning he received a letter from the Home Builders Federation telling him that his housing policy doesn’t stack up. The letter sent by HBF Executive Chairman Stewart Baseley warns Mr Brown that he faces stark choices between the 240,000 a year housing target, aspirations for more affordable housing, private sector support for funding infrastructure, the zero-carbon target and a selection of other policy objectives such as lifetime…

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