Houses, not Casinos...

[faceless]

Three million homes but not a supercasino
Philip Webster, Political Editor and Jill Sherman

Gordon Brown yesterday promised the biggest programme of housebuilding since the 1970s — but left the country guessing where the homes will be, how much they will cost and what they will look like. At the same time he stunned MPs by killing off the supercasino, the centrepiece of Tony Blair’s long-planned expansion of gambling in Britain. The Prime Minister pledged the creation of three million extra new homes by the end of the next decade as he put the housing crisis at the top of the political agenda. The annual housebuilding target is to be increased to 240,000 homes a year. The last time that figure was reached was in 1979, when council houses were still being built.

In the years since, council building has virtually stopped, but it will be revived drastically as part of yesterday’s package. Doubts were voiced last night over whether councils would be able to remobilise the construction expertise that they once had. Some 550 sites across the country owned by the Government are being examined for the building of up to 100,000 new homes, with a further 60,000 being built on “brownfield” sites owned by local authorities. Among the ambitious plans are proposals for five “eco-towns”, which will be built with the lowest possible carbon impact.

The Prime Minister came under immediate attack for failing to disclose how much of the new property would be social housing and how he would ensure that affordable private housing was built. There was also little detail about where the new homes would be built and how planning could be fast-tracked to make sure that houses were delivered as quickly as possible.

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This is quite a step - it would do a hell of a lot for the economy in terms of making the average person feel secure and it would have great long term effects (not just at the ballot box!) if it works right. The fact he's cancelled the idea of these tacky-bastard-sounding supercasinos is good too.

I'm impressed.

[major.tom]

I'm impressed. Sounds like a great start.