Housing must become a priority, warns RICS

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has warned today (Thursday) that the Government cannot afford to push housing any further down its list of priorities.

In its final submission to the Barker Review on housing, which is due to be published on Budget Day on 17 March, the RICS predicts that a minimum of 250,000 new homes must be built every year for the next 10 years if a crisis is to avoided.

Louis Armstrong chief executive said: "With the focus of the two major political parties likely to be firmly set on who will spend most on health and education, the danger is that housing will be the big loser.

"Poor housing conditions impact hugely on health and education so to sacrifice housing in order to boost health and education would be to shoot ourselves in the foot."

The provision of 250,000 homes a year would represent a massive 33% increase in the existing rate of housing provision -currently estimated to be a mere 185 000 housing units per year.