A New Vision For Housing

In 1945 the Labour Government set out to enable everyone to have a decent home, where people from all walks of life could live together. This dream was destroyed by a succession of avoidable mistakes and almost everyone now seems to believe that it is impossible to re-discover that vision, and that we must live in divided communities where many tenants live in neighbourhoods of concentrated poverty, increasing numbers of young people cannot afford to buy, and record numbers of homeless families are trapped in temporary accommodation. In contrast, most home-owners live in homes with gardens, in suburban or rural areas, benefiting from rising capital assets.
This book challenges that fatalism. It traces the different policy mistakes that have given rise to this inequitable state: the folly of mass housing, the retreat before the forces of nimbyism, the failures of regional economic planning, the under-supply of new homes, the collapse of affordable housing programmes, and the unfair tax privileges of manyhome owners.
Holmes describes and advocates a new vision for the new millennium, finding solutions variously in development, planning, economic structures, social reform, and political re-assessment to narrow the gap between rich and poor and enabling people in all housing tenures to finally have a choice.