Housing is one of the issues I hear about most often when speaking to people across the country.

For many younger working people, the idea that hard work should lead to a secure future – including owning a home – increasingly feels out of reach. Even secure renting can feel uncertain and unaffordable.

That matters not just for individuals and families, but for the country as a whole.

When people cannot afford to live where the jobs are, businesses struggle to recruit. When families cannot move easily, labour markets become less dynamic. And when housing costs rise faster than incomes, living standards come under pressure.

In short, housing is not a side issue. It is central to both economic growth and opportunity.

That is why I am pleased to be chairing a new expert-led Commission for Prosper UK, bringing together people with deep experience of how the housing system actually works.

Our aim is straightforward: to identify the practical reforms needed to improve affordability, increase supply and ensure the housing market works better for those who depend on it.

This will not be another exercise in rehearsing familiar arguments. Too often, housing debates generate more heat than progress.

Instead, we want to focus on what will genuinely make a difference.

Housing supply in England remains well below what is needed. In 2024 – 25, just over 208,000 net additional homes were delivered – far short of the levels required to meet the Government’s ambition of 1.5 million homes over this Parliament.

At the same time, the pipeline is weakening. Planning permissions have fallen to their lowest level in over a decade.

The result is a system that is increasingly failing to meet demand, with the greatest impact felt by younger generations trying to get on in life.

The Commission will examine the structural factors that lie behind these outcomes.

That includes planning, land availability, development viability, competition in the market, skills shortages and construction capacity.

These are not new issues. But too often they are discussed in isolation, or through a purely political lens.

Our intention is to bring them together, draw on real expertise, and focus on reforms that are deliverable in practice.

When Prosper UK was established, it made a commitment to approach the country’s biggest challenges differently: by listening carefully, drawing on expertise, and focusing on evidence rather than slogans.

Housing is a clear test of that approach.

For too long, the debate has been dominated by competing political narratives, but short on delivery. If we are serious about solving the problem, we need to engage with those who understand the system best – and be honest about the trade-offs involved.

Britain’s housing challenges are complex, but they are not unsolvable.

With the right reforms, it is possible to increase supply, improve affordability and restore the sense that the system works for people who want to get on.

That is the task we are setting out to tackle.

The work starts now.