Housebuilding must increase threefold to satisfy demand

A threefold increase in house building is needed to recover the UK's housing crisis, says a report carried out by The Future Homes Commission.

Set up by RIBA last September, the FHC have conducted an inquiry into the quality of newly built housing. Their research suggests that 300,000 new homes need to be built every year to satisfy the current demand for housing.

The report also promotes the creation of an independently managed £10 billion Local Housing Development Fund, financed by the largest Local Authority pension fund in a given area.

Billed to provoke "a radical improvement in UK housing," the report's remaining initiatives call for greater focus on housing design, a more consumer-orientated market and leading governmental direction.

Future Homes Commission chairman Sir John Banham said: "We strongly believe that local government can become the leader of new development once again, by using their assets and powers to create the type of mature, sustainable, mixed tenure communities that Britain needs and that institutional and international investors want to invest in."