Government told to build more homes

The government has been urged to build the country out of a recession with a major programme of house construction. The 2020 Group is made up of representatives from Shelter, National Housing Federation, the Local Government Association and Trades Union Congress and is chaired by Bank of England official and former Brown adviser Kate Barker. The group says there is an urgent need to build 100,000 affordable homes to rent and that the move would save construction jobs, and meet an ‘urgent’ demand to house the five million people expected on housing waiting lists in England by the end of next year.