ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an interpretation of the term ‘sustainable housing’ and considers the variety of meanings attached to sustainability in the context of housing policy, delivery and consumption. Recent debates in the area of housing policy and production have tended to focus on future development patterns and the way particular strategies may limit the consumption of green-field land whilst reducing the need to travel (Breheny, 1999; Banister, 1999b; Hall, this volume). In this discussion, it will be argued that underlying what is now seen as the ‘great debate’ in housing, are numerous additional issues, which together, determine the overall sustainability of the United Kingdom's housing system. Some of these have been highlighted by Williams (1997: 1) who has argued that:
For the last seventy years or more the UK has been struggling to identify and put into practice a coherent set of housing policies (and housing practices) which might be sustained through the life of governments of different political persuasions and a range of social and economic conditions.
