The report points out that UK house prices have risen by an average of 2.4% per annum (in real terms) for the past three decades while in France the rate has been 0.8% and zero in Germany and over the past decade the rate of construction in the UK was over 12% lower than the previous ten years at a time when demand has never been higher. Among the many suggestions in the report is a call for wide ranging reforms in the planning system tied to a new levy – the planning gain supplement – on the increased value of land when it converts from agricultural to residential use. Ms Barker also hinted that local authorities should be able to keep council tax revenues from new developments to pay for increased provision of schools, transport and other community facilities which are often put under pressure when major developments are added to an existing residential area.

To build out of the current rate of increase in house prices would require the provision of 120,000 homes with an additional 40,000 annually thereafter. But to defuse the inevitable criticism from environmentalists she goes on to point out that this rate of building would only use up 0.75% of the south-east region’s land even if all of them were built in the region.