British construction is not at a historic low, it is in the same slump as in Germany and France, which slump Italy was in for six years and is now coming out of. Statistics published by the U.S. government predict housing starts will rise during the next three years in all the countries mentioned, including Britain. The U.S. wood industry has now worries about a British land shortage. A stable population is the trend that most affects housing starts, despite which stability the British government predicts an increase in demand for more than 3 million new homes in the next 20 years (making it highly unlikely than anybody in England needed four million new homes since 1996). Because of this stable population, home renovation is at least as important as new home building in Western Europe. France, which has increased its forest cover significantly since the middle of the century seems not to have any worries about a land shortage in terms of new construction.
Comrade Heartfield can try and blame environmentalists for everything but the truth is that the British population is stable and demand for new homes will not be robust under any circumstances. Unless, that is, the real-estate-owning class decide to limit their gauging of the British city-dweller and allow new owners to buy and build upwards in the cities where our comrade and his fellow British subjects want to live in the first place.
It might also help if the British used the same money as the rest of Europe so they could securtize their mortgage debt more easily and boost construction lending.