According to the Government’s ‘housing strategy’ paper to be announced today, the Tories are about to build some houses. So far, so good, though quite a surprise since in this last year housing completions shrank to their lowest level since 1923. But let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth. According to Cameron, it will be ’as many as’ 450,000 by 2015 and ‘mainly’ affordable homes. That would work out at around 100,000 a year, about the level of this last disastrous year, so not much change there. But haven’t we heard this before? Gordon Brown promised in 2008 that he would build 240,000 new homes a year, a total of 3 million by 2020. The number declined sharply each year from 2008 to 2011. Will this latest, much more modest promise (only 40% of what Brown predicted) fare any better? Very likely not, for good reasons. Continue reading →