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280 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 2017
The years in which the state built most were also those in which the market built most, suggesting that state supply caused little if any crowding out of private investment. If anything, the opposite was true, as relatively small regional and local building firms were able to take contracts to build homes for the council, while financing a few speculative homes for sale themselves. If credit was hard to come, or sales low, these builders could keep themselves in business and their staff in work by continuing to build for the council.
The concentration of the industry and barriers to entry have lowered competitive pressure, and militated against product innovation, with the result that new homes in Britain are widely seen to be unattractive and poor quality, with only 18% rated as being of good or very good design. Fully two-thirds of home buyers say they would not even consider a new-build – an extraordinary indictment of the quality and size of home that the industry produces.