Shocking over-crowding statistics for English Housing

Recent statistics published in a housing survey of 207 over-crowded households state that 41% of children or teenagers were sharing a bedroom with an adult, and 70% of the survey respondents said they experienced both poor mental and poor physical health because of overcrowding, so how do we solve this conundrum? Simply speaking (and it isn't simple!) we need to maximise the potential of our inner cities with high density affordable but spacious, secure and inviting homes, well-constructed, well-managed, well-maintained and well-located to good facilities for occupants. In parallel we need to balance this with expansion and densification of our outlying suburbs, still more airy than the city centre, but a less intense family environment, each seamlessly connected to each other with an excellent public transport system - Utopia

Easy isn't it! Well albeit the government keep promising investment in affordable housing, the reality seems to be that there is no money available, and so the onus is upon developers and land-owners to fund affordable housing at part of their tariff for making profit. The requirements of section 106 offsite contributions become more and more, and will build costs rising, it is the landowners that hold the key, and the value which they perceive their land to hold.

If the government are without funds, then they have to use the tools available to them and that is legislation. The planning system is fundamentally broken, with too many reasons for delays and refusals, but this is something that can be resolved with good leadership and clear thinking. Developers should be given the opportunity to bring proposals to the table which give them some profit, make it attractive to the landowners to part with their land, and the provisions of good quality affordable housing for all should be integral to this process. This combination should be the ruling factor in whether planning permission should be granted, even if it is against local plan policy.

Some of us may have to sacrifice our amenity along the way, but whilst our children are growing up with stress because of their poor surroundings, we are never going to address the social issues which underlie many of our inner cities and outlying suburbs today.