Housing situation 'requires government intervention'

Posted: 13 Oct 2008 14:18:36 GMT

The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) has called for government intervention in the housing market.

According to UCATT, Whitehall should encourage private home builders to finish incomplete projects and convert those properties into social housing in order to alleviate the strain on the private real estate market.

A spokesperson for the union explained that doing so would help to take potential homebuyers off of the waiting list for housing, immediately reducing the pressure on the industry.

He said that "radical policies" are required, but added that forcing builders to construct more social housing would help to "restart the house building sector".

Earlier this year, prime minister Gordon Brown laid out plans to build three million new homes by 2020, a target which would require the construction of 200,000 properties a year.

However, new research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors suggests that only 66,220 new homes have so far been built in 2008, with a fall to below 25,000 per quarter expected by the end of the year.

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