It is widely felt that the Government needs a more ambitious housebuilding target. In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on December 8, Alistair Lexden reminded the Conservative Party of its past achievements in building housing for the nation.
SIR--The Government’s housing target (report, December 4) is 200,000 new homes a year. Attlee’s government achieved that number from 1945. The Tories condemned it as insufficient and pledged 300,000 a year - which Harold Macmillan, as housing minister, proudly fulfilled after 1951.
That government gave housing “a priority second only to defence”. This brought the Tories their second great housing success. Their 1950 election manifesto had reminded voters that “before the war, under free enterprise with a Conservative government, the nation was getting 1,000 new homes every day”. The Tories should now build for a third time on a scale that the nation needs.
Lord Lexden
London SW1