I often comment on the important role that district councils play as strategic planning and housing authorities DCLG's Planning for the right homes in the right places, consultation on which runs to 9 November, provides an easy target. No doubt some Government decisions will be unveiled as part of the Budget or soon thereafter.

The shared theme with potential reforms to New Homes Bonus is that the Government continues to think councils are the root of the problem of housing supply. A common methodology for assessing housing need might assist in unlocking additional land allocations in areas that have not provided for sufficient housing growth in the past. But councils don't build the vast majority of houses. It is developers that are constraining delivery by not building quickly enough on sites that benefit from planning permission. There is no lack of willingness on the part of district councils to give permission: they enabled almost 50% of housing completions in England last year and approved 90% of planning applications.