The poor supply of land is to blame for the UK's housing shortage according to Bank of England economist Kate Barker in her report to the Treasury published on Wednesday (December 10). She blames this land supply constraint on both the planning system and the housebuilding industry's unwillingness to take risks which leads to a reluctance to build out sites quickly. As a result an extra 39,000 homes need to be built each year just to keep up with the UK's household growth. The housing shortage is constraining economic growth, says Barker, thereby "reducing standards of living for everyone in the UK" and causing a surge in UK house prices. The report estimates that if these had risen in line with the European average since 1975, the UK would be £8bn better off. "Constraining supply means that resources which would have been used for housing are instead used for other potentially less beneficial purposes or not used at all." Barker says the "complex" planning system is partly to blame saying: "Timescales are often unacceptably long, and the requirements of planning can be used to prevent development." But she also identifies housebuilders' reluctance to develop brownfield sites and the holding of …