<b></b><p></p><p><b><b> The remarkable strength of consumer demand and the housing market cannot last, </b><b>John Stewart</b><b> warns</b></b><br><b>Total housing completions in Great Britain fell to a provisional 161,953 in 2001, their lowest for 54 years and comfortably beating the previous record set in 2000. If the war years and their immediate aftermath are excluded (1940-47), completions were the lowest since 1924 (Figure 1).</b><br><b>This would not matter if additions to the housing stock were keeping pace with growth in housing need. But household growth, the main component of need, has been rising at record rates in recent years. The 1990s saw the second largest increase in household numbers of any decade since records began in the mid 19th century. Housing completions in England in 2000, at 136,671, were more than 90,000 short of the estimated 229,000 increase in households. Net gains after allowing for conversions and demolitions did little to close this enormous gap.</b><br><b><b>yet more records</b></b><br> But 2001 was also a record year across a range of other economic and housing market indicators. By the end of the year, retail sales volumes were growing at their fastest rate since the late 1980s boom. New car sales to private buyers were a record in …