All governments' housing policy has failed over the last 30 years. So declared the deputy prime minister in February as he launched the Communities Plan – his grand vision for correcting all those years of error by building places where people want to live and work, and can afford to buy a decent home; where it is impossible to distinguish between public sector homes for rent and private sector homes for sale. It would create more affordable homes across the South while breathing new life into dying areas in the North and Midlands and put an end to the building of tawdry boxes that become shabby and crime-ridden after just a few years.
There is no doubt that the Communities Plan is an impressive blueprint for housing policy, coming, as it does, with a range of radical measures including a move to regional policy and single pots of money for councils and registered social landlords. But is there, as so often with New Labour, a yawning gap between the vision and what can actually be delivered on the ground?

Now that the sector has had time to take stock of the proposals, Housing Today looks at how they will work in practice. Over the next three weeks, we'll explore how the sector is responding to the challenges, and track the progress of three housing teams grappling with the new ways of working. We'll be asking – and trying to answer – crucial questions like: Will the three options of ALMOs, stock transfer or PFI be enough to clear the £19bn backlog of repairs and enable councils to meet the decent homes target?

Can groups that have so often pulled in different directions now realign to truly rebuild collapsing markets?

Will nimbyism and the labyrinthine planning system prevent the construction of the much-needed 900,000 homes in the South-east?

Will housebuilders really embrace prefab?

And will the worsening economic prospects mean the transport links vital for growth fail to come out of the bottom drawer?

Housing certainly has much to play for – but also, like the government, much to lose.

Source

Housing Today