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I am currently writing my 3rd year dissertation on the subject of social housing provision. It has become abundantly clear to me that one of the reasons council housing has developed such a terrible reputation is the legacy of a numbers-driven housing policy introduced by the conservatives in the mid fifties, which prioritised short term targets for housing completions over quality. The resultant craze for shoddy, system built housing with no thought to the aesthetic impact on the residents or longevity has left the remaining council stock - after the best was cherry-picked by right-to-buyers - in a terrible state. It is shocking to think that despite the universal condemnation of the majority of social housing output in the 60s and 70s, professionals are still pushing for quantity over quality. Houses built last century have left a more enduring legacy than those built forty years ago, despite the vast leaps in building technology that have been achieved over the twentieth century. Surely, whatever the economic climate or demand for housing, the overriding concern is to build houses that can serve the population for more than forty years before they become a liability and a financial burden.