22 November 2002
In a scathing attack on housebuilders that 'get up and go' as soon as they complete new estates, Lord Best, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, called for social landlords to be given back the housebuilding role they had in the 1960s and 1970s.
The number of homes built by social landlords, including local authorities, has fallen by about four-fifths in the past 20 years, he told a conference in London on the social housing crisis. Private builders, which used to build half of new properties, now account for 85%.
'We have to end our reliance on private housebuilders,' said Best, who is also chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Trust, a registered social landlord.
'We don't want people who go in and out quickly. They are not the people who are likely to produce the sustainable communities of tomorrow.'
Too often, RSLs had to 'come in on the coat-tails of builders' when they provided affordable housing within larger developments. But developers built cheaper homes only to satisfy planning regulations.
Earlier, housing minister Lord Rooker promised to balance the needs of southern England, where more homes are required, with those of the north, where many houses are abandoned.
He gave no indication that RSLs would be able to build more than the 23,000 homes the Housing Corporation has been told to deliver next year. Best said that three times that many were needed.
PFnov2002
