More money is needed to build new homes and a relaxation of planning controls will be vital if the current housing crisis is to be eased, Lord Rooker said yesterday.

The housing minister described the UK level of house-building, which is the lowest since 1924, as a national disgrace.

Forum Response: Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

A spokesman for RICS told ePolitix.com: "The fact that Lord Rooker has identified the chronic mis-match between supply and demand for housing as a major issue is encouraging. We simply are not building enough homes. This is indicative of a general malaise within the UK housing sector - the UK spends less on housing investment than other EU countries.

"Development on brownfield land should nearly always be preferred to development on greenfield if we want to achieve an urban renaissance. Brownfield land is not, in itself, difficult to develop. The issue is wider, i.e. how to achieve sustainable urban development. Some sites remain undeveloped for a variety of reasons such as market failure, high costs, poor existing infrastructure and fragmented land ownership.

"That said, there are many areas of green(ish)field around existing developments that could easily be developed with affordable homes in mind. Utilising these areas by extending village and town envelopes could ensure that other areas of greenfield remain untouched.

"Given excessive house prices in London and the South East the problem of key workers in essential services will not go away. For individuals working in low paid professions, a lack of affordable housing imposes considerable restrictions in relation to housing choice. If the demand for certain professions is at its greatest in areas where housing is prohibitively expensive, then local economies will suffer.

"This problem is particularly acute for low paid key workers in areas of London and the South East who cannot afford to live near their place of work. This will significantly affect the provision of public services and raise the prospect of a loss of skills in vital sectors (as key workers relocate).

"As a lack of affordable homes spills into the labour market, employers may be forced to raise wages in order to retain their workforce even if this is not economically viable. Business competitiveness will therefore inevitably suffer."

Forum Response: CABE

Hilary Clarke, press and communications manager at CABE, told ePolitix.com: "There is no doubt that we have a major housing crisis on our hands. Not only are too few new homes being built too slowly, but we believe that many of those which are completed are of an extremely low quality and will need to be replaced in a very short space of time.

"We are currently running an initiative called Building for Life which aims to raise the sights of volume house builders, showing them that it is possible to build attractive new houses at high density on brownfield sites without cutting their own profit margins.

"However, examples of excellence in this area are currently few and far between. We believe that central government must intervene in order to make sure that new houses are provided more quickly, and are designed and built to last."

Forum Response: National Housing Federation

A spokeswoman for the National Housing Federation told ePolitix.com: "Lord Rooker's statement provides much-needed confirmation that the Government is fully committed to increasing the number of affordable homes.

"If this commitment is backed up with the necessary funding, we as a society could be reaping the economic and social rewards within five years - through more effective public services, poverty reduction and reduced homelessness, to name but a few.

"However, the forthcoming Spending Review announcement will be the acid test."