<p>Economist Kate Barker has spoken out, claiming the government has failed to act on three important recommendations put forward in her review of housing supply, published three years ago. Barker said: “In three areas the message of the review has not been enacted. I had argued for more flexibility: the plans for land availability should offer flexibility to react to circumstance, and the cycle of the market and the upward revisions in household projections are things we need to respond to.</p> <p>“We also need to ensure local authority finance responds to growth and offers better incentives where growth is needed - there is too much focus on getting funding out at the point of development. Thirdly we should have an improvement in statistics and evidence. There are regular disputes about numbers and we need a better evidence base if we are to have a more flexible system.” Barker said the government had acted on 25 of her 34 recommendations, but said it was unclear whether there were enough developments in the pipeline to continue the rise in net housing additions to the 200,000-plus needed to meet demand.</p> <p>She warned that it may take ten years to solve the intermediate housing …