Your report on sardine-tin dwellings converted from high-street shops (News, last week) highlights the proliferation of substandard homes across the country. This should be a source of national embarrassment. By legislating to make it easier to convert offices and shops into housing without adequate space, light, ventilation and insulation, the government has also made it easier for unscrupulous developers to profit handsomely from the shortage of affordable housing in towns and cities.
As we begin to rethink our high streets and town centres, rather than making it easier to build the healthy, safe and sustainable homes we need, the government is actually opening the door to a new generation of slums. This country can and should do better.
Alan Jones, president, Royal Institute