Hello and welcome to you, the edition.

Each week we look at some of the most important and intriguing issues in the week's magazine with the writers behind them.

I'm Narra Prendergast.

This week, should first-time buyers be scared of new builds? Plus, will the Catholic Church come to the defence of the word

mother? And finally, why does it take so long to understand Japanese culture, even for the Japanese?

First up, with the Tories losing a by-election in

Cheshim and Amisham, and with planning and new-build housing being a priority issue for many voters,

our cover story this week looks at the shadowy cabal of property developers who dominate the market.

To discuss, I'm joined by John Myers from the organisation Yes in My Backyard and Vicki Spratt, housing correspondent of the I newspaper and author of the upcoming book, Tenants.

Vicky, our lead article in this week's spectator begins with the tale of a young couple who have had problem after problem with their new build home.

And later on in the piece, they reveal that they would say they would never buy a new build home again.

You obviously know a lot about the housing market.

What's your advice to young people when it comes to new builds?

Well, it's a tricky one, isn't it?

Because a lot of affordable housing is newly built.

A lot of the homes that are available as shared ownership, although not all,

and also through the government's help to buy scheme, are new builds. And we know that there is a

huge problem with quality amongst new build homes. So I suppose very important that I as a journalist

don't give advice per se, but if I were going to give anyone any pointers,

I would say that they really need to make sure they've got the best conveyance insolister they

could possibly have and keep an eye on that developer's history in terms of quality and complaints,

and you can look them up on Trust Pilot.

...