Welcome to F.T. Politics, the Financial Times's podcast on British politics.

I'm Sebastian Payne in our third summer special,

where breaking out of the new cycle to take a look at some

of the big policy questions facing the UK.

This week, we're looking at housing.

The country seems to have an undeniable problem in its housing market.

There aren't enough properties being built.

Many of the pre-existing ones are no longer affordable,

and swaths of the social housing stock are in disrepair.

I'm delighted to dive into this with June. of the social housing stock are in disrepair.

I'm delighted to dive into this with Judith Evans, our property correspondent,

John Gapper, our chief business commentator,

and Sam Bowman, who's executive director of the Adam Smith Institute. Thank you all for joining.

So if you ask anyone they will tell you the UK is in the depths of a housing crisis.

Last year a hundred and sixty-eight thousand homes were completed in England, way below the projected 300,000

needing. Successive governments have tried to grapple with this problem and failed for both

political and practical reasons.

So why do they not make much progress on this

when lots of people keep piping up saying something must be done?

We're going to look at where the problem lies

and what can be done to solve it.

So Judith Evans, let's begin by just taking a wide picture on the UK's housing situation

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