| IF and it's a big IF with this lot, they do replace the housing then fine, that was the big mistake last time that nothing was replaced and the stock of truly affordable housing all but disappeared. I do think however that their proposals on planning are very worrying and would like to know why on earth they're not doing something about all the housing standing empty to start with, because as you go around there is a lot of it that could surely be brought into use. I think this government is too beholden to developers, the system has always had a presumption in favour of the developer but this is almost giving carte blanche, and all this waffle about creating employment is a red herring, there will only be employment while the building is going on, what are the long term effects? As I have said often, I'd really like to see new, environmently friendly and radical types of building used instead of the traditional bricks and mortar, other countries use prefabricated kit type houses so I really can't see the problem here - unless of course the deveopers couldn't make enough money that way. |