You know darn well that evidence is not plural of anecdote. I can certainly google unfavorable pictures of single family houses too. Your attitude does not come as very rational either.
I am not exactly sure what you are trying to argue either. That urban planning is bad? That the market has all the solutions to housing issues? That there is not such thing as wasteful consumption of resources and space? If that is your argument, I do not think we have much to say to each other, because I see it as neoliberal article of faith, which, as I said elsewhere is pointless to debate. The only rational response is to ridicule and discredit the bearer of such messages, and I would not want to do such thing to a fellow lbo-ster ;
Or just that you do not like the housing situation in the UK? If that is the case - I accept your opinion as one person's opinion, but I do not have much else to say since I do not live in the UK. Or are your trying to argue that the UK situation is generalizable to other countries? If so, you would need to make a case for this, since I sincerely doubt. For one thing, there is housing surplus here - not housing shortage - and the problem that most people face is that they do not have enough space, but that they do not have enough money to pay for the houses in which they live. In other words, the problem is not alleged restrictions on construction, since this is a non-issue here - but the fact that housing is left almost entirely to the market and profit making motives.
Furthermore, your argument about "most people living in suburbs" is at best misleading. I live in what may qualify as "suburbs" i.e. place that is outside the high-rise downtown DC, but it is nothing like "suburban sprawl." In fact it has pretty high population density, event though you may not tell it right away. It is a mixture of multi- and single-family houses .I suggest that you google Silver Spring and turn on the satellite or street view and look for yourself.
This is certainly not what I have in mind when I talk about MacMansions and gated communities.
If you believe that a 6,000 square foot house that uses some $2,000 a month worth of energy to heat and air conditioned and occupied by two people is "just a house" - then I do not think we have much to say to each other because I do not, and I do believe that there is such as thing as wasteful consumption, and that it is a big problem, and that we as society should reduce it as much as possible. I do believe in rational use of resources and rational planning - by which I mean smart growth is nothing like the caricature that you are painting.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."