The Government’s housing growth plans present an opportunity to improve the use of housing as an enabler of economic growth, but housing policy will need to be more responsive to local economic development conditions.

In the current downturn, ensuring new homes are delivered of the right type, in the right place, and linked to wider economic outcomes will be all the more important. If housing is treated as an isolated issue, future investment is unlikely to achieve either sustainable growth or the outcomes desired by the Government’s recently published Regeneration Framework.