Housing should be seen in a long-run context since policy and outcomes cannot be changed quickly. But for most households, housing conditions have improved enormously over the last 50-100 years. Housing problems are about tails in distribution. Nevertheless, many improvements have not come about through explicit housing policies. Housing policy is a poor relation to wider fiscal and monetary policy and this contributes to high housing market volatility. Therefore, the first theme that I want to stress tonight is that housing conditions have improved enormously for the vast majority of households over the last 100 years, but we tend to forget this because of the regular housing crises that have hit both countries. However, by and large, the changes to housing have not (with important exceptions) come about because of housing policy; they have been the by-product of wider movements or changes to the nature of the economy. In this case, the gains came from scientific discovery backed up with associated legislation.