Fear of prefab holds us back

I fully support the dismay of Guinness Trust chief executive Simon Dow following the report of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister select committee into affordable housing ("Stop using prefab – it's not the answer, says select committee", 7 February, page 15). The struggle to get modern construction techniques in Britain is difficult enough without such an endorsement for the status quo.

The failure of the British housebuilding sector to embrace the modern construction techniques used in other countries is well documented. There are profound cultural and financial reasons for this. As a result, we produce poor, expensive houses if compared with those in Sweden, Japan and the USA, for example.