As we roll on towards next year’s General Election it has to be said that anything which increases the profile on the need to build more houses is welcomed. With that in mind, the timing of the Lyons Review, published last week, is a healthy reminder for the main parties to keep this issue top of the agenda.

Its announcement on the same day CLG issued new statistics on development activity on Green Belt land is a telling counter point. The statistics are there for one thing only; for CLG to defend accusations that development creep is reducing Green Belt protection. As Tim Taylor of Forsters rightly points out, it is a sad indictment when we would rather highlight the 13% of the country protected by Green Belt (not to mention the myriad of more tangible environmental protection zones) than the 9% of urban land that our population is packed into.