Be creative with planning

Rapidly rising prices have forced first-time buyers to look for smaller and smaller properties in lower value areas.

The problem will not be solved overnight or by throwing huge sums of money at it. But local authorities are now starting to recognise the importance of providing affordable housing in new residential and even commercial developments.

The situation would certainly be improved if key workers such as police and nurses could be guaranteed affordable accommodation in new housing schemes.

It would also help if planning laws were relaxed to allow more creative conversions of existing buildings.

More schemes with limited or no parking, as well as those built on cheaper inner city "brownfield"-sites, rather than more expensive greenfield sites, should be given higher priority.

Greater encouragement to convert space above shops into residential units will provide badly-needed homes and discourage "twilight zones" where town centres become deserted after work and vulnerable to crime.

On the tax front, there seems to have been little take-up of schemes where banks and building societies assist first-time buyers to save deposits by matching a sum saved.

Just a little more thought by the Government to make these more popular would go some way to solving the crisis.