ABSTRACT
The Government’s housing policy, enunciated in the Housing Green Paper, states that “demand for new housing will continue to grow: household projections indicate that somewhere close to 3.8 million households may form between 1996 and 2021 — equivalent to around 150,000 new households each year”. This chapter examines how this approach may pan out in the context of the most pressurised regions of England — London and the South East. Translating the household projections into a requirement for new housing involves additional analysis of the potential for reusing the existing stock of housing and land, the capacity to reduce vacancies and the likely extent of demolition and conversion. All the evidence suggests that very little of the requirement for additional housing can be found from the existing stock. If the national economy is to maintain its potential, the emphasis in London and the South East almost certainly has to be one of expansion.
