Whichever government minister you speak to, they will always accept there is a housing crisis in the UK, and the government needs to act. However, how to act is something that is a matter of contention. The government may tinker with the taxation system, or provide extra money by way of grants, but that will never be enough.

The single biggest thing the government has that will help the housing crisis, is land. It has lots of it. In the 2015 Spending Review, the government said it aims by April 2020 to “release surplus public sector land in England with capacity for at least 160,000 new homes”. The government also wants to use the land to raise money to reinvest in public services. It aimed to raise almost £5bn from the land. So how does the National Audit Office (NAO) think they have done?

Not so well…

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