“Housing policy is killing British civilisation,” said my interlocutor. “Right to buy has been a social catastrophe, making today’s generation pay for the earlier generation’s bonanza of buying their council house on the cheap – the stock has collapsed because the homes were not replaced. There is too little or no affordable housing or rents in great parts of the country where young people can start or bring up a family.
“It is already hitting the birthrate. Forget building a quarter of a million houses a year rising to 300,000: it is not going to happen with the new planning rules that enthrone the nimbys. This country so safeguards the interests of the old and the equity in their houses, it is literally killing off its future.”
