Building new homes clearly matters to the thousands of
people who want their own home (and the thousands more who will join that group
as the population increases and demographics change over the next decade or
so), but with 70% of rolled lead sheet being used in new homes it matters to
our industry as well.
I’m just not convinced that, despite the rhetoric, politicians
of any of the major parties, at national or local level, are really determined
to tackle this problem. The headlines in last week’s cabinet reshuffle focussed
on the top jobs but lost in the weeds of the announcements was that we have yet
another new Minister for Housing. The new Minister, Brandon Lewis MP, is the
fourth holder of this office since the coalition came to office in 2010 and
succeeds a Minister who held the post for just nine months!
The previous administration was no better. We had four
Ministers for Housing (and usually several other things as well) during three
years of Gordon Brown’s premiership.
Although Brandon Lewis’s appointment has moved Housing
slightly up the ministerial pecking order as he’s a Minister of State whereas
his predecessor was in the more junior position of Parliamentary
Under-Secretary, when I look back into history real success in achieving
housing targets came when the role had cabinet rank back in the 1950s and
1960s. Harold MacMillan secured his rise to the top of the greasy pole of
politics as the Cabinet Minister who got 300,000 new homes built in a year.
I’m far from certain that we’ll ever build the number of new
homes we need unless Housing once again has its own seat at the top table.
Richard Diment
LSA Executive Manager
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