Furious and frustrated: where has support for housebuilders gone?

The Tories pledged in 2019 to build 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s. But construction chiefs are facing uncertainty, particularly after the removal of mandatory targets for councils, says Chris Blackhurst

Generally, new roads, schools, medical centres and so on are provided by the housebuilding industry (Getty/iStock)

One of those planning notices came through the door this week. It was for the nearby hospital site.

Let’s not get carried away – it’s not a full-on, all-singing NHS complex – but a mental health unit that is barely used. Still, it once was a proper isolation hospital and what remains occupies a decent amount of land, large for suburban southwest London.

What’s proposed is 106 apartments and three houses. Hmmm. How many of the homes would be social housing or affordable, it did not say. The last thing we need is more smart flats, each one doubtless with a car or two to join our already clogged roads. Not to mention the additional pressure on the sewage and household refuse systems and extra light and noise pollution. And if they have children, where will they go to school?