Despite having twenty million more people, Britain built more homes in the 1930s than it does today. That should be impossible in a modern wealthy country.

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Back then the population was smaller by 20,000,000. Yet in the 1930s we still created over 330,000 new homes a year, compared to around 250,000 today.

After a century of progress in every other field, we have become worse at providing the shelter people need. The impact of this is devastating: unaffordable rents and homelessness.

The reasons for this are not hard to grasp. They come down to costs and time - regulations and bureaucracy we have deliberately imposed on housebuilding. Things could work so much better and everyone would gain if they did.

To see good practice in action we should look at Japan, and Tokyo in particular, a city facing similar construction costs and spatial challenges to London. Despite skills shortages, an ageing population and strict earthquake restrictions they still build around 100,000 homes a year, more than three times London’s rate per person.

The benefits of this are obvious. While our housing problems worsen, rents and homelessness in Japan remain comparatively subdued.

The difference between Britain and Japan isn’t money. Japan isn’t richer. The difference is their streamlined rules.

Over there, if a development meets pre-set zoning rules then permission to build is almost automatic. Developers don’t spend years going back and forth with planning committees, satisfying viability assessments and handling endless objections. Apartment buildings of all sizes can be built across Tokyo and other cities. Older buildings are constantly replaced with new ones.

In short, their system allows housing supply to respond rapidly whenever demand rises.

We do the exact opposite.

Developers face planning negotiations, infrastructure constraints, safety regulations, environmental rules and then local objections. In London things are particularly bad where housing starts have collapsed by more than 70% in the past two years.

Developers are also expected to include large amounts of subsidised housing. This is effectively a huge tax that makes many projects financially undeliverable.

Each policy and restriction can sound sensible on its own. But together they form a barrier of time and expense that stops enough homes being built.

Every development must tick every possible box: beautiful architecture, modest heights, generous affordable housing quotas and minimal disruption to the neighbourhood. And then we wonder why the homes never appear.

The consequences of our quest for perfection do not remotely impact  ministers or mayors. But they do ruin the lives of ordinary people.

Young professionals are stuck in house shares well into their forties. Families are forced to move away from their communities. In many parts of Britain renters now spend close to half their net income just to keep a roof over their heads.

And at the sharpest end of this crisis rough sleeping is rising and tents are appearing in parks and cemeteries. We have become desensitised to this housing injustice.

A country that cannot house its people is not a healthy place. Britain seems pretty sick right now.

The government must take action and shred the rules that block building and impoverish the country. If it does not then rents and homelessness will both spiral. And the whole nation will suffer.

Andy Preston is the former Mayor of Middlesbrough.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

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