No homes for the Election

" The single issue which could lose the Government the election is the failure of its housing policy....no Government will have so deserved a defeat.....Now we have a Cabinet with the Minister of Housing left out and a Chancellor who has said publicly that he thinks housing needs are of no more importance than education and other calls on his department."
I wrote that in a Guardian column in October, 1969. Has anything changed? No, except to become worse. Council housing has stopped, and there is no separate ministry to deal with housing any longer.
Houses are no longer regarded as homes, vital to a family's welfare ("hardworking" or not), but as a quick source of profit as the price of housing has gone out of control. In London, no one on an average salary can now afford to buy a house, and low family finances generally are crippled by high mortgage payments which in 40 years ago would not even have been procurable.
Then, the Labour government was promising 500,000 homes by 1979 - a target which was not achieved, but which at least was an aim.
Now, the Minister of State for housing and planning, who is allowed to attend Cabinet even if he is not a member, is suggesting only that there could be 100,000 new homes on surplus local authority land.
There is no air of urgency, as there was in the past, no prime place in the political speeches. Yet the lack of a suitable place to live is experienced by most people on low or average incomes in both the country and the city It is a matter of shame for recent governments , Labour as well as Tory. The high rise flats were often a design disaster of the 'sixties, but at least they represented a sense of urgency in getting people into a home with modern equipment which they could afford.
Housing shortage is a prime cause of poverty and bad living conditions. When shall we see an end to housing being simply a route to profitable investment instead of the provision of homes for all who need them?