Idon’t want to come over all Benjamin Disraeli here, so let me just say that statistics can be a source of fascination, frustration and sometimes irrelevance. There is a danger that stats can be somewhat over analysed when in reality they work best not as a source of detailed nuance but to reveal an overall picture. In that way, stats can be used as weapons to fight industry battles, but should not be taken as comprehensive evidence of specific market factors. <br> <br> statistical variations <br> <br> The housebuilding industry has always been a good source of stats – housing starts, housing completions, planning permissions, visitors, prices, reservations … it goes on. And within these categories there are many variations which are often overlooked or misunderstood by those who use the figures. So when there is speculation that fewer than 100,000 homes will be built this year it begs the question: what does that actually mean? Are we talking about England? Or Great Britain? Or the UK? 100,000 private homes? Or private and social? Starts or completions? Seasonally adjusted or not?<br> <br> The statisticians and analysts who pore over housebuilding stats to assess what is happening in the industry and …