All to play for

Perhaps not. After three solid weeks of party conferences you might be suffering from politics fatigue. But now is not the time to switch off the Today programme and tune in to Wake up to Wogan. As this issue shows, politics is at the heart of housebuilding right now.

The government has pushed housebuilding and regeneration up the political agenda and that has generally been good for our industry, but it has a drawback. As Labour sets itself up as the pro-development party, there is, inevitably, political capital to be made from taking an opposing stance. This is what the Conservatives discovered in the last election, and now we are seeing the consequences: the progress of the South East and East of England regional plans is largely at their mercy.

Whoever wins the Tory leaderships race, he (for that, at least, is sure) is unlikely to be averse to winning votes by scuppering local development plans. The local authority and London borough elections next May will give the Conservatives more opportunities to play the nimby card. A political game is being played out, and it is a dangerous one.

The Building Communities Awards 2005

The sustainable communities agenda may be demanding a lot more from housing providers, but the challenges are bringing out the best in the industry. Just take a look at the winners and finalists in our Building Communities Awards 2005 supplement in this issue, and you’ll see the evidence.

Here you can learn more about the modern method of construction that incorporates design flexibility, the urban brownfield housing scheme that turns a hostile location into a landmark, and the top housebuilder that knows all there is to know about how to bring sites through our troublesome planning system. On 5 October a glittering awards dinner at the Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane rightly celebrated the winners. But all the finalists featured in our pages deserve praise for coming up with the innovations, best practice and designs to deliver more and better homes.