There is a growing sense of urgency to deliver more new-build property and over the last five years, the Government has made significant changes to the planning system, introducing schemes to boost development - such as Help to Buy - and put pressure on local authorities and public bodies to sell surplus land.

As a result there has been an increase in housing delivery, but the supply of new-build homes is still lagging demand on an annual basis, even when the historic shortfall is ignored. According to the 2016 Knight Frank Housebuilding Report, the country's largest housebuilders, along with the Home Builders Federation (HBF), have recently pledged to help deliver 1m homes by 2020, recognising that there needs to be 'significant further action from the housebuilding industry'.

The Knight Frank report assesses the next steps required to address the need for housing over the coming years and identifies the issues which need to be tackled for volumes to continue to rise, informed by an exclusive survey of housebuilders.

More than half of respondents said their businesses would be stepping up starts and completions over the next 12 months and over half (56%) said they were planning to recruit more skilled workers in the next three years.