The House Builders Federation is urging the Welsh assembly to act now to avoid the housing crisis it says is brewing in Wales. A new report by the HBF reveals that Wales is facing a housing shortage even more acute than that in the UK, exacerbated by the fact that its stock is the oldest in Europe. The backlog of unmet need already stands at 33,000 homes, says the HBF in Building Success: the Economic Role of New Housing in Wales.