Question: In 2002, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned that if current rates of construction continued, Britain would face a shortage of one million homes by 2020, heavily concentrated in the south of England. Do you still think that is the scale of the problem we face?

Richard Best: I think that we know from the interim report issued by Kate Barker just before Christmas that the position is probably worse than we described it two years ago.

We need 39,000 extra homes every year just to stand still and keep up with the rising number of new households.

This wouldn't impact on the backlog of about 450,000 homes.

Put this all together and by 2020 we are having a shortfall of well over a million unless we do something about it now.

Question: You mentioned Kate Barker's report, and of course Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report contained references to housing as well. Do you think that together these two reports provide the answers to housing shortages?

Richard Best: They don't provide the answers but they do provide the analysis and it is really important that the chancellor is taking so seriously the acute shortages of housing.

This has not been at the top of the political agenda for ages and it is really important that he has taken this crucial issue on board.

Question: Why has this housing shortage been allowed to develop?

Richard Best: We have gradually cut out the provision of social housing - it used to be council housing, now its housing from housing associations.

This used to constitute half of all the provision but now we've cut that right down so now it is just 10 per cent of what it is provided.

We are dependent on the private sector - which produces about 85 per cent of all the new homes - and that's not good enough because it is not going to produce very many more than it provides now.

We have to recognise that 30 years ago, half the homes were provided by councils. We have to make up the other half and this will involve a good deal of extra public money.

Question: There is always local opposition to new housing developments. How should this be countered?

Richard Best: We can counter it by showing the consequences of always giving in to that opposition.

It's inevitable that people who live next to a piece of land that's going to be developed will complain about that development because they will see the extra traffic and hassle and difficulty.

But, the leadership there - the local authorities and the planning authorities - have to think of all the other people in that area, and the economy of the area, and exercise their leadership role: this means representing wider interests against very local opposition.

Question: Does the Joseph Rowntree Foundation take a view on how best to deal with these local concerns?

Richard Best: If possible, there should be something in it for the neighbours of the development, as well as the community at large.

This wins friends and influences people.

If the development is not 'nasty little boxes in a soul-less estate', that helps. Design is important.

If people are consulted about all the issues that worry them - traffic and the way that the layout impacts upon them - then that can mitigate the problems.

But hopefully there is something directly in it for local people.

A big development we're doing in York includes moving the power lines and removing big pylons which is good for people who live in the surrounding neighbourhood as well as prospective residents. We are also paying for good quality community facilities to go into the new neighbourhood so people gain something for themselves.

Question: You mentioned York, but in parts of northern England there are surpluses of empty housing. What should be done about this?

Richard Best: Well the old industrial cities - of which York is not really one - require quite different solutions than those which relate to the South East and to acute shortages.

For them it is not a matter of building more social housing, because there is plenty of cheap housing in most of those places.

We need to remodel the housing that is there, together with some demolition as well. The government's housing renewal pathfinders are a very promising move in radically restructuring these areas.

Question: Kate Barker recommended reviving and extending the private rented sector. Do you agree with this?

Richard Best: Yes. The new-look clean, relatively upmarket, private rented sector - for single people particularly, who don't mind living in relatively high densities - can prevent the need for green field development of family homes in the suburbs.

Market renting in new apartments can also revive city centres and bring in big institutional finance to add to the investment of house builders and housing associations.

So we see this as very positive and we welcome the idea of Real Estate Investment Trusts which the Chancellor is putting forward.

Question: What else do you want the government to be doing?

Richard Best: Well, although the chancellor may not like it, we fear it's going to require a return to levels of public expenditure on housing that, if not the same as health and education, have got to be more significant than they are at present.

We need to fund a lot more affordable housing and that's going to cost serious money.

We need to hit the infrastructure problems: the need for better transport if we're going to develop the Thames Gateway or other areas in the South. We also need to address the water supplies, the environment of those areas where there is dereliction but where new homes are going to be built.

So it adds up to, I'm afraid, a lot more public expenditure.

We think there are probably opportunities for land tax on the windfall gains that some people make from development to pay some part of that extra bill.

Question: Is there anything that you personally, as a member of the House of Lords, plan to do on these issues?

Richard Best: Well we've got two Bills coming in to Parliament in this current session. There's the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill and there's a new Housing Bill.

So its going to be quite a lively time and I hope to make some suggestions on beefing up these two Bills to make them a bit more potent.