Economic growth will not be the answer to the UK's housing crisis

Britain's economy is likely to grow but so too will house prices and rents, prolonging the country's crisis of unaffordable housing

The UK enjoyed the fastest economic growth in the developed world in 2014 at 3%. There are signs that lower levels of business investment is beginning to recover and the forecasts are for economic growth of around 2.5% this year and next. But this will be fuelled mainly by higher household spending. High employment levels, a combination of near-zero inflation and accelerating wage growth will help consumer confidence and the willingness to reduce savings and increase borrowings.

At the same time the prospects for any significant expansion in affordable housing have been thrown into doubt by the announcement of the extension of the right to buy to housing association tenants. Since the decline of local authority housebuilding in the 1980s, the UK hasn't seen building enough houses to keep pace with population growth.