No more radical reforms, please, we’ve pushed our MPs too far

Nick Clegg is frustrated. He told callers on LBC this morning that ‘one of the most frustrating dilemmas that we have face in government is that we have thrown a barrage of initiatives at this problem to get the construction sector and house-building sector moving, it just takes longer than, I think, you or I would probably like.’ He did suggest that ‘we will, over the coming years, see a real step change, but where I share frustration with you is it takes so long to translate these new devices for getting house-building going into shovels and spades being put into the ground’. But what might be even more frustrating is that this ‘barrage of initiatives’ might not deliver the number of homes that Clegg and Co hope for, even when that ‘step change’ does take place. And still more annoying is that ministers have decided there isn’t enough time or political capital to do anything about it.