There is a helpful Executive Summary at pages 3 and 4 with main conclusions and recommendations at pages 5 and 6, including:

1. To address the housing crisis at least 300,000 new homes are needed annually for the foreseeable future. One million homes by 2020 will not be enough.

2. To achieve its target the Government must recognise the inability ofthe private sector, as currently incentivised, to build the number ofhomes needed.

3. The Government’s focus on home ownership neglects other tenures; those on the cusp of ownership are helped and those who need secure, low cost rental accommodation are not.

5. The Government must ensure local authorities who wish to build social housing have access to the funds to do so. The current restrictions on the ability of local authorities to borrow to build social housing are arbitrary and anomalous. Local authorities should be able to borrow to build social housing as they can for other purposes.

11. There is a large gap between the number of planning permissions granted and the number of houses actually built. We recommend that local authorities are given the power to levy council tax on developments that are not completed within a set time period.

12. Overall, planning should be simpler, more transparent and more helpful to small builders”