The announcement by the Prime Minister that he plans to knock down some Housing estates with £114M of Government Money and an unspecified amount of private sector investment is the sort of statement that one might imagine came from a newly elected MP or recently appointed Minister. It is clear that along with an acute shortage of housing, that poor housing remains as one of the greatest challenges in our nation. However the idea that a small sum of cash and permission for private companies to be handed publicly owned land, provided they knock down and rebuild homes, which they will then be able to lease back will improve our housing conditions is extremely naïve. Our Prime Minister is not naïve and he is not a newly elected MP so one can only presume that his announcement has nothing to do with improving the lot of people in poor housing, but instead that he has a plan to help big businesses make a profit. Even if I am wrong in my cynicism about the big picture, the reality is that national statements like this risk enthusing many people who live in sub standard property, hoping that they will be one of those to benefit. Meanwhile the public cash and the private sector investors will be focused on very different areas of our towns and cities. We certainly need politicians willing to focus on house building and on improving the quality of existing housing, all the better if that comes from a recently re-elected Prime Minister. However this needs to be a well thought through strategy which all parties can get behind for a generation, not some political gimmick.