Government missing housing, school and hospital targets

The government is at risk of failing to meet its target for the number of new social homes and will miss the 2010 Decent Homes target, the Construction Products Association said this week.

It also claims that the government is still failing to meet its targets for completing repairs on schools and hospitals, and has left the transport network in a poor state.

In its annual report, Achievable Targets, is the Government Delivering?, the CPA says there are still one million people living in substandard social housing, too many school pupils learning in substandard buildings and that the transport network is harming business competitiveness in Britain.

The report was launched on Wednesday at the association’s annual autumn lunch at the Hilton on London’s Park Lane.

Michael Ankers, its chief executive, said: “There are still too many public facilities in a very poor state of repair, which considering we are one of the wealthiest economies in the world is unacceptable.”

There are still too many public facilities in a very poor state of repair, which is unacceptable

Michael Ankers, head of the Cpa

The association said the government had failed to address the backlog of repairs for existing buildings. The Decent Homes initiative remained a significant challenge.

Ankers said: “By the government’s own admission it will miss its target of halving the number of non-decent social sector homes by 2006 and on current trends will miss the long-term target for bringing all these homes up to a decent standard by 2010.”

The government has fallen £9bn behind its targets for dealing with the school building repairs backlog, and is behind on its £45bn Building Schools programme. In the health sector the backlog of repairs has risen by nearly 19% since 1999 to £3.7bn.

The association has also called on the government to invest in the UK’s built environment more effectively by working more closely with the construction industry.