At the height of the housing boom, before the 2007 crash, Spain was building close to 700,000 homes a year. In the area where I was staying – in the countryside, away from the tourist hotspots – there remain even now groups of homes standing empty that serve as a legacy from that era. Having just spent a few days in rural Spain, I’m struck by a useful cautionary tale for our housing industry.

Yes, there is a numbers challenge in Britain. But even where there is a need for more housing, if we’re not building the right homes in right places, for the right people and with a mix of tenures, then it doesn’t add up. 

Of course we have to care about numbers, but we mustn’t find we have to go back and change what we have built because we ignored the need for high standards of design and place, and for the right mix of tenures in sustainable locations.

“Yes, there is a numbers challenge. But if we’re not building the right homes in right places, for the right people and with a mix of tenures, then it doesn’t add up” 

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