The problem

With a growing population and shrinking household sizes (fewer people on average living, in each home) England clearly needs more homes. And we're getting them — around 180,000 currently, the highest level for the last 18 years.

If we were to build far more homes than this, the rate at which greenfields disappear under bricks, concrete and roads will accelerate (already 21 square miles of countryside, an area larger than Southampton, are lost each year). There will be correspondingly more traffic and pollution, more climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions, and more pressure on water supplies.

Most people are better housed, and have more housing wealth, than ever before in history. Home ownership has been rising for decades, and so has the amount of space we enjoy per person at home. Meanwhile household size has been falling, and so have levels of overcrowding.

Fact: there are over 600,000 more homes than households

But the very high level of house prices today is a real problem for many people on moderate incomes who hope to own their own home. And many people on low incomes still struggle to find a decent, secure home.

Building more homes won't end house price inflation
House prices have been going up fast around the developed world, not just in England, even in countries with lots of land and big increases in housebuilding. We can't build our way out of high house prices.

A massive boost in building homes for sale would make little difference to house prices. Even a doubling in output would not be enough to prevent house prices rising faster than inflation in the long term,as a review for the Treasury by top economist Kate Barker has shown. But as well as damaging the environment and the countryside, it would impose huge infrastructure costs on the public purse (those homes need roads, especially if they are built out of town).