This report is the result of a year-long joint project by KPMG in the Uk and shelter to contribute to the crucial national debate on the housing shortage. In October 2013 we published an interim report which summarised our findings from a series of roundtables in the west midlands and several other subsequent roundtable discussions. we have now supplemented our findings from the west midlands with expert input from the Uk and abroad, and with a series of commissioned technical research reports led by capital economics, Europe economics, and Ippr, to develop a comprehensive package of solutions to the housing shortage. the land is the primary input into house building, but the unique features of the land market have been poorly understood. the primary consequence of the inherent scarcity and permanence of land, accentuated by the planning system and amplified by the financial system is that land values tend to rise over time. the gain in value that planning permission delivers is generally very high, encouraging strategic land trading, rather than development and also resulting in the most profitable beneficiaries of residential development being the land owner not the developers, the community, or central or local government.