Next year is the 100th anniversary of Lloyd George’s ‘Homes for Heroes’ campaign. Social housing troubles policy makers of every political hue for very different reasons. But, in the age of populism, ignoring social housing is not an option. As Sarah Davidson points out, ‘Housing means hope for nearly everyone in this country’. Equality of opportunity matters in housing as it does every other policy area. I contend that the failure to deliver social housing is putting another nail in the coffin of social mobility.

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There is very little bandwidth in Westminster for anything other than Brexit. But while we expend our energy navigating our way through the choppy waters, the housing agenda continues to fall behind. As Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive of Legal & General points out, we are far from delivering our aspiration of 300,000 houses per year. He sets out his priorities for building a new housing eco-system that will deliver for everyone.

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Oliver Novakovic is the Technical and Innovation Director at Barratt Developments plc. He takes a timely look into the future of mass house building and how alternative construction methods will be the only way we can hope to keep pace with demand.

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Dagmar Boschman is a member of Groenlinks in the Netherlands – a political party born of the left but with decidedly centralist appeal. She looks into the Dutch attitudes to social housing and offers some thoughts on the lessons we might learn.

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Finally, Sarah Davidson, in our cover feature, looks back at governments recent record in housing, and in particular renting, and makes a plea that if all else fails can we please have a housing minister who lasts longer than it takes to plan and build one house.

As ever we sincerely hope you find our publication thought-provoking and welcome any feedback.

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Matt Smith
editor@housingpublisher.co.uk