Labour’s housing policies have already been tried – and have failed. Here is the radical solution | Richard Sennett

Building on brownfield sites is often a social nightmare and new towns take years to bed in, but there is a simpler wayMy heart sank when I read the Labour manifesto on housing. A litany of proven past failures is presented as the shining future. For instance, the party wants to build high-density housing on brownfield sites – which has meant erecting tower blocks set in open spaces. This kind of housing has proved a social nightmare outside cities as various as Paris and Seoul; elderly pe