Associate
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 1,716
You could build 35,000 £100k houses for that money which would house 140,000 people
The problem is a 100k house including land costs is a pipe dream. The majority of people live in economic or population centres where there is a limit of land pushing up prices. As mentioned above if you build a housing estate just for council housing you risk going back to the old days of areas people avoid going through due to crime and reputation.
There need to be more council homes built but they need to be evenly distributed in all areas to avoid this. Part of the problem is mentaly when it comes to paying for big projects. The mindset is very much on balancing the book for the financial year, as that is how councils and managers are judged. A private company would calculate business plans and realise that spending 25bn over 4 years will be cost effective compared to renting properties within 10 years. Unfortunately no one thinks long-term and is more concerned of their legacy and targets before they move to a different role. PFI was a good example of this and we will be paying the cost for years to come.