"Now considered exemplars of social housing.." This is an excellent article and as somebody who believes we need a fresh era of social housing development I found it fascinating. But is your "exemplar" view shared by those who still live in the 50s, 60s and 70s blocks? I support the new Government's aim of forcing a home building boom by speculative builders, but I do not believe it is all we should be doing. Many people don't want to own their home. And there's nothing wrong with that. Home ownership is a stumbling block to those whose lives involve frequent changes of location - 2 years here, 3 somewhere else. And for many the step out of renting sleazy property into a safe, permanent home of their own is just too steep, financially. The UKs home ownership percentage is TOO HIGH, rather than not high enough, would be my message to Sir Kier. We are unique in Europe in having such a focus on ownership. London is covered in a rash of rather nice, comfortable new blocks - but they are divided into 1 and 2 bed units. Those are not family homes. We should be creating homes where people can bring up a family for 20 or 30 years, creating stability and proper neighbourhoods. Sorry...lecture over. But I feel this is a massively important issue.