England faces a housing crisis: a growing population requires a substantial investment in new housing, but house-building is a source of great controversy--in large part because it is seen as destroying irreplaceable swaths of countryside. In this provocative book Shaun Spiers offers a middle course, acknowledging both sides of the debate but building a strong case that government can forge a contract with civil society, one that trades the acceptance of the loss of some countryside for the promise of high-quality, affordable housing development in suitable locations.