The credit crunch should not be an excuse to return to poorly designed housing and regeneration, junior housing minister, Iain Wright, has warned.

Speaking at a London housing conference the minister told local authorities ‘to hold their nerve' and if necessary, reject planning applications which included poorly-designed projects.

He added: ‘I'd hate to see shoddy buildings go up again.

We have to stay focused not on just supply, but also on good design and sustainability.'

The minister told the Future of London event, a meeting of 20 major housing projects in the capital, that the Government intended maintaining its three-year £8.4bn housing programme, despite the economic climate.

He said the CLG was also looking at opportunities to acquire land, whose price had recently fallen for regeneration.