Letters | 30 July 2015

What we’re building

Sir: I was surprised and frustrated to read Ross Clark’s piece on housing associations in last week’s edition of your magazine (‘Stop moaning, start building’, 25 July). Surprised because it seemed to misrepresent the facts concerning housing associations, and frustrated because the analysis offered by Mr Clark ignores the key role that housing associations play in ending the housing crisis. Housing associations — which vary hugely in geography, size and function — have consistently supplied tens of thousands of new homes year after year. For example, last year they built 40,000 homes — a third of all new homes — and they matched every £1 of public investment with £6 of their own money. Indeed, when private development dropped 37 per cent in the crash between 2007 and 2009, housing associations continued to build and even upped their output by 22 per cent to make up the shortfall.