RICS reports on

"what government and industry should do to drive investment in affordable housing and ultimately build the right homes for everyone in the UK". 

Well they've certainly offered up some "interesting ideas" ...

The Rics commission of experts was set up to come up with recommendations for policymakers. It said one of the problems was that current government initiatives had focused on creating demand for new homes almost exclusively for those able to buy. "There is a new 'help-to-buy' policy but no new 'help-to-rent'," it stated, adding that more needed to be done to develop a better supply of rental housing.

The commission took evidence from the property profession, the not-for-profit housing sector, investors, developers and other bodies, and said its report was designed to help policymakers address the country's housing crisis in the short term.

The Commission took evidence, and has provided recommendations, in key areas:

• Effective subsidies
• Improving stock quality
• Regulation
• Land availability
• Facilitating investment in the rental sector.

Recommendations in the report include:

• Doubling the target for releasing public land for residential development in England, from 100,000 new homes to 200,000, by 2015. The government should then identify enough land for a further 250,000 homes during the next parliament, said the report.

• Requiring developers to start building work within three years of planning consent being given.

• Replacing the right-to-buy scheme with a "portable home ownership discount" for tenants. They would build up this discount during their tenancy, and would be able to use it to buy a different property. "This recommendation would keep low-income homes in the rented market and make more available for the most vulnerable. It would also give those who aspire to own their home, and who display a capacity to save, some choice over where they buy," said the report.

• Exempting people over 65 from stamp duty when they downsize from a larger property to a smaller one, "in order to encourage them to move home".

• Allowing local authorities to generate extra income by introducing new council tax bands. At present, the highest band is H, for properties worth more than £320,000 in April 1991. The commission suggested new bands above H should be introduced, though still using 1991 values in order to ensure the minimum amount of change is required. The report said that 100% of the extra income generated above Band H should be ring-fenced for funding new affordable housing.

• Changing the rules to allow people with "Sipps" – self-invested personal pensions, where individuals make their own investment decisions – to invest in new-build residential property, provided it is let on commercial open market terms and managed professionally.