The housing crisis won't be solved by slogans. It needs courage

So here is a modest proposal. Instead of another review, another consultation, another carefully worded statement that commits to nothing, let us try something. Let it be small. Let it be imperfect. But let it be real, and let us be honest about what happens when we try.

Because the alternative is what we have now: a slow drift, punctuated by outrage, followed by silence. And the silence, in the end, is the part that does the most damage.

We have built a system that is very good at explaining why nothing can be done, and very bad at doing anything

I do not pretend to have all the answers. But I am increasingly certain that we are not even asking the right questions, and that until we do, the answers we get will keep disappointing us.

There is a particular kind of silence that falls over a room when somebody says something obviously true that nobody else has been willing to say. I have been in a lot of those rooms lately.

The alternative

Let me be clear about what I am not arguing. I am not saying that the people making these decisions are stupid, or malicious, or that they do not care. Most of them care a great deal. That is precisely what makes the outcome so frustrating.

The problem is not a lack of ideas. Anybody who has spent 10 minutes in the sector can reel off a dozen things that would help. The problem is a lack of nerve, and a political culture that punishes people for trying something and rewards them for saying nothing at all.