The latest results of the government’s annual housing delivery test (HDT) have served to highlight how far we have to go with housing supply.

By comparing the actual number of homes built over each of the last three years with the minimum requirement for each local authority, the HDT is supposed to be an indisputable, concrete way of measuring performance. Failure to pass the test results in sanctions ranging from preparing an action plan to remedy the shortfall, right through to the imposition of the presumption in favour of sustainable development for the worst offenders (the so-called “tilted balance”).