You have to be dense to tackle housing

It's often claimed that the big dilemmas around the need for a lot more homes is how to build them whilst protecting the green belt.

In fact, it's not that big a dilemma at all: we just need to build homes at a much higher density. In the decades following the 1950s, 'high density' became a dirty term: because it became synonymous with hideous concrete tower block estates where the standard of life quickly became terrible. But it doesn't have to be like that.

Look at Islington, Notting Hill, Fulham - and of course Putney - and the beautiful, hugely sought-after Victorian and Georgian terraces of cottages and town-houses in these much sought-after areas. Those homes were built to levels of density planners today would shrink from. Or a contemporary example: the huge riverside blocks that have come to dominate Wandsworth's riverside - which I personally do consider to be overdevelopment - but there only because there's a huge demand for quality high-density property.

And that's the key: quality, not density. As long as the homes being built and the personal space they provide are high quality, density really should be less of a shiboleth. But that must apply to all housing: not just luxury riverside penthouses but affordable homes too.