Despite having twenty million more people, Britain built more homes in the 1930s than it does today. That should be impossible in a modern wealthy country.

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Back then the population was smaller by 20,000,000. Yet in the 1930s we still created over 330,000 new homes a year, compared to around 250,000 today.

After a century of progress in every other field, we have become worse at providing the shelter people need. The impact of this is devastating: unaffordable rents and homelessness.

The reasons for this are not hard to grasp. They come down to costs and time - regulations and bureaucracy we have deliberately imposed on housebuilding. Things could work so much better and everyone would gain if they did.

To see good practice in action we should look at Japan, and Tokyo in particular, a city facing similar construction costs and spatial challenges to London. Despite skills shortages, an ageing........

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