I don't particularly think a local society should say where housing could go - if this is what you mean by 'direct the supply of housing', although what Michael has written on the matter is welcome. The original question was "Does FH Soc want more affordable houses?", not where. I thought it was a straight forward enough question. A simple yes or no would have done.
If you don't think a local society should say where housing could go, upwards or otherwise, why does it matter what type of housing they might want? You then contradict this by saying that they should be
Quote:
asking their local authorities to presume in favour of conversions and upwards extensions
All of the rest of the econominc argument seems to be pointless until you resolve this.