ABSTRACT
One of the most obvious tests of the construction industry’s commitment to corporate social responsibility concerns the development of new homes for owner occupation, in which business success is marked by explicit engagement with the varied and changing agendas of government and the home-buying public. The emergence of a specialist housebuilding sector can be seen as a distinctive feature of the UK construction industry that reflects both the rapid growth of owner occupation in the post-war years and the development of specialist financial systems to facilitate wider access to mortgage funding. Although rising real incomes have encouraged consumers to purchase housing increasingly for investment as well as use, few homeowners commission an architect to design a bespoke product and a builder to implement that individual design.
