An infrastructure expert has called for “more direct intervention” to boost the number of homes being built in London, after research revealed fewer than half of new homes given planning permission are actually constructed.

Ian Tasker, a director at consultant Grant Thornton, said London was in the midst of “an extreme housing crisis” and was continuing to fall “seriously short” of the level of housebuilding needed to reach the mayor’s target of 66,000 new homes a year.

Uncertainty in the market had taken its toll, said Tasker “While a significant increase in permissions is a welcome sign, without dramatic change and more direct intervention to find out why we are failing to substantially increase this output, we will never fix our broken housing market,” he added.

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