THERE was a time when governments built houses for the less well off, but these days social housing is almost entirely down to private developers.

And if they don’t yield a profit, they don’t get built.

It’s a far cry from the post-war golden age when both main political parties used subsidised construction programmes to give everybody a decent place to live.

Indeed, the Conservative party’s manifesto for the 1951 election stated: “Housing is the first of the social services…. Therefore, a Conservative and Unionist Government will give it a priority second only to national defence.”

Imagine hearing that now. But unlike so many of today’s political promises, it wasn’t a hollow one. Since the war Labour had already achieved an impressive 200,000 houses a year, but Churchill wanted to increase that number and prove that his was the party of the people.

Harold Macmillan was given the job, despite bemoaning to his diary: “I know nothing whatever about these matters, having spent six years now either on defence or foreign affairs.”

But Macmillan proved to be a quick learner. He said “housing is not an issue of Conservatism or Socialism; it is an issue of humanity”. And, by 1954, production in the UK peaked at 354,130 of which 239,580 were council houses.

In truth, the whole period from 1945 to the mid-1970s witnessed something of a boom, albeit not quite as impressive as in the mid 1950s. Output levels were high and successive governments sought to replace inner city slums and bombed-out sites with modern council estates, often on the edge of towns and cities.

Since then the supply of social housing has understandably fallen dramatically during recessions. But, and here’s the important bit, despite growing demand, supply has failed to increase during boom years.

And there’s the rub. For the past ten years an average of 137,000 homes has been built annually in England, despite a need for at least twice that number.

Not surprisingly that has left us in a pickle. Few young people can get on to the property ladder and the often expensive private rental sector is increasingly their only option.

It’s true councils attempt to force developers into incorporating affordable housing quotas, but now a High Court judgment could put a stop to all that.

This month, City of York Council lost its challenge to overturn a government planning inspector’s decision that Water Lane Ltd should not have to commit to affordable homes at its site in Clifton.

And it could set a worrying precedent. Many builders will tell you that adding affordable housing makes new developments uneconomic.

So any loophole that gets them out of it is sure to be welcome.

Not that it’s all bad news. Councils may become house builders once again after George Osborne announced, in his autumn statement, a limited relaxation on local authority borrowing caps to finance new social homes over the next four years.

City of York Council has just revealed the first of its plans; a small project at Fenwick Street off Bishopthorpe Road and says it will deliver up to 70 new homes in the city by next summer.

But that’s a mere drop in the ocean, as are other council house schemes up and down the country. And now that builders seem to have a get-out clause, heaven knows how are going to get out of this mess.

As Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan went on to say: “Let us be frank about it: most of our people have never had it so good.”

Whatever would he make of us now?

• MONEY is no object, David Cameron crowed the other day and just as quickly regretted. What he meant of course is that Tory strongholds, Berkshire and Surrey, will be baled out both financially and literally, how ever much it costs.

North Yorkshire residents might find this a bit rich. When Malton, Pickering and York flood, government aid is as conspicuous by its absence as national TV crews.

But now the south east has been deluged it seems our supposedly broke, austerity driven economy, where every penny must be fought over, suddenly has cash to spare.

Yes we’re all in this together; but only if we live in the Home Counties.