Broken Homes

There is 'no place like home' sighs Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. A sentiment with heightened meaning in Britain 2020. There is no book like Broken Homes either. Britain's housing crisis is subject to caustic analysis from a journalist who used to work for a house builder, blended with the mordantly funny experiences of a senior government advisor now trying had to become a housebuilder. Broken Homes exposes the short-term, haphazard and partisan development of housing policy. How political misadventures have led to the housing crisis Britain faces today. Former Conservative and Labour housing ministers interviewed freely admit to a dysfunctional system presiding over ill-formed plans mainly pushed by partisan lobby groups. Broken Homes exposes the disregard by planners, designers and builders for those who occupy new homes. A world where homes are crammed to meet targets, where occupants are forced to fit rather than form the mould. Where the desire for decent-sized homes is being thwarted by rules encouraging matchbox estates. A world in which the role of a home changed forever in 2020 but where space standards are no higher than 100 years ago Broken Homes explodes the fallacy that building more homes will bring down prices. Or that improving the planning system will somehow make a difference. Instead, decent-sized decently-spaced homes must be demanded for a new generation of New Towns, and that Government must also face the fact they need to subsidise a major programme to build homes for those who will never be able to pay more than half the market rent.