Response: Lyons Review

For Shelter, the most important conclusion that can come out of Sir Michael Lyons' timely review of the housing supply system would be that we can no longer be timid in our response to the housing shortage.

In England, we have seen successive governments – Labour, Conservative and Coalition – fail to build enough homes for the best part of 40 years. All parties have been long on initiatives to stoke up demand in the mortgage market, but short on the tough choices that would make house prices or rents more affordable for families on normal incomes. We need ambitious reforms to deliver a new paradigm of house building in England. One which provides high quality homes in sufficient numbers which are affordable to rent or buy now and in the future for those on normal incomes. Nothing less will do.