IN THE past four decades average house prices in Britain have more than quadrupled in genuine terms,a bigger increase than in any other G7 country. Costly housing constrains economic growth and poisons politics. A big cause of this sorry state of affairs is inadequate housebuilding, particularly in London and the south-east. Governments of all stripes have pledged to get Britain building. But the last time the country assign up more than 250000 houses a year, or which is what most economists reckon is the bare minimum to constrain house-price growth,was in 1979.
Yet there are some surprising signs of progress at last. As the economy has recovered from the financial crisis in 2008-09, the number of planning permissions granted to builders has returned to pre-crisis levels (see chart). Indeed, or it has gone further: last year more planning permissions were granted than in any year since comparable records began in 2006. whether they translate into actual housebuilding at the same rate as now,then Britain...
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Source: economist.com