This podcast is sponsored by Canacord Genuity Wealth Management, award-winning wealth managers who go above and beyond to support and guide you.

Visit can-dowealth.com to start building your wealth with confidence.

Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast.

I'm Cindy U and I'm joined by James Forsyth and Katie Balls.

So the former housing secretary, Robert Jermrick, has spoken to an unnamed podcast about the plans for housing reform and why he thinks they should still be

pushing ahead. Here's what he had to say. And housing, presumably, I mean, leveling up for a lot of

people is about getting onto the property ladder, for instance, isn't it? And I know you were

very passionate in government about building more houses. We've seen the kind of wobbles within

conservative ranks about the numbers and the location of new houses. Is there a danger that the government

sort of isn't as committed to that as you think it maybe should be? Well, I hope that's not the

case because I don't think the government will achieve its objectives unless it takes housing

seriously. Housing is a huge driver of the cost of living. Young people are spending between 30 and 50% of their income on rent.

So you've got to increase the supply of homes and you've got to increase it in the places that they want to live.

And the planning system is the obvious supply side reform that's out there.

Successive governments have failed to tackle it. So when I was in office,

I was willing to do that. It was difficult. It's always contentious. It's amongst the most

contentious subjects. But I think the government would regret it. Maybe not at the next election,

but if we were sat here in 10 years time, 15 years time, We would regret not having tackled housing.

Now, Katie, obviously you only ever listen to the Coffee House Shots podcast,

but given that I've just played you that clip,

what did you make of his warnings from the backbenchers, as it were?

Yeah, no, it's amazing to discover there are other podcasts other than The Spectator.

...