Britain Isn't Building Houses – And That Sends Shivers Down Coalition Spines

It is 60 years since Harold Macmillan became Conservative minister for housing and set about notching up 300,000 houses a year as if they were, in his words, runs in a cricket match. He succeeded a year ahead of schedule. The prowess of today's English cricket team is not matched by the current housing tally. The National Housing Federation has said home ownership will soon slump to levels last seen in the mid-80s before Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy policy transformed Britain into a property-owning democracy. "This is pretty traumatising stuff …" one Downing Street aide said "… to preside over the unravelling of right-to-buy." Shivers go down government spines. What strategists on both sides of the coalition – neither of whom performed brilliantly at the last election – are now searching for are policies that yield them the loyalty of a particular group in the way that right-to-buy did for the Tories. Read more on the Guardian website.