If you were to believe what you read about new homes in the media, you would think the best strategy would be to build as few as possible.
They are blamed for a variety of ills from over-stretched GPs to polluted rivers. There are, we are told, more homes than households meaning there is a surplus.
Of course, both of those suppositions are wrong. New homes don't cause all the problems blamed on them. Nor is there a surplus. In fact, the recent release of census data showed how the housing shortage is getting worse.
One of the consequences of that narrative is more and more financial burdens are placed on the industry because the government sees it as an easy target.
Yet the demonisation of new homes misses half of the picture. The shortage of homes actually causes a great deal of harm - from obvious issues like over-crowding, to less obvious ones like hampering economic growth and even reducing the country's fertility rate. The government should be doing all they can to encourage the benefits of boosting the supply of housing.
In his latest column for Housing Today, our managing director, Paul Smith, explains why we need a fair deal for new homes.
This was produced as part of Housing Today's "A Fair Deal For Housing" campaign.
