Why are so few new houses being built at present?

In fact, the 150,000 or so new houses that have tended to be built privately each year over the last couple of decades continue to be built. What is different is that the 40,000 to 50,000 new council homes that used to be built each year in the era before the right-to-buy are no longer being built. This is where the real squeeze in the property market has come, and it is very heavily skewed in this direction.

Something like 40 per cent of the new houses required in the UK are needed in the social housing sector. But local councils no longer want the expense of developing and building such homes, and the private sector has not moved in on this part of the housing market and housing associations are unable to take up the slack.

Is the Government doing anything to affect this trend?

It is conducting a series of reviews - it does not want to be seen to do nothing, but nor does it seem to want to do anything. Building on Green Belt or increasing the housing density in any region where land prices are soaring is certain to be politically unpopular with the "Nimby" element - "not in my back yard".