Nick Harvey notes:

Currently, even with the best will in the world, sufficient numbers of new houses are not being built fast enough. The demand is in part driven by the British desire for home ownership rather than renting and by an aging population which is living longer – rising house prices also of course play a part.

To support the national house building process Regional Assemblies draft the Regional Spatial Strategy, this is ultimately approved by the Government. Local Authorities, when preparing their development plan must ensure that their housing proposals are in accordance with housing numbers allocated in the relevant RSS.

According to Government forecasts the number of households is projected to grow by 223,000 per annum by 2026, over two thirds of which will be single person. Nationally we are building about 180,000 houses a year - simply not enough, though in the Housing Green Paper, Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable, published last month the Government proposes to increase this to 240,000 a year, as well as 70,000 affordable homes. See:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/embedded_object.asp?id=1511967

The Government has set itself the unenviable target of three million new homes over the next 13 years, it remains to be seen whether this is achievable and at what cost to our environment. One of my personal preferences would be to see new towns developed, creating civic pride, rather than making the existing ones larger and larger thereby ruining their character and putting local infrastructure under increasing strain.

The public consultation period for the Green Paper ends on 15 October 2007.