<b></b><p></p><p>Industry veterans tell me that it is a long time since the housebuilding agenda has enjoyed as much prominence as it does today. The coverage of the housing crisis in the national media is intense at present, as if they have just discovered the subject and want to make up for lost time.</p><p>Of course, talking about the issue and actually doing something about it are very different things. The scale of the problem, as revealed by John Stewart in his Building a crisis report (see this page), is immense. But government and industry have to start somewhere to address the problem.</p><p>Lord Falconer has recently suggested two possible ways forward - housing key workers in prefabricated homes and building to higher densities as required under PPG3. Both of these have merit, but neither can come close to effectively tackling the problem.</p><p>There is progress on some fronts. Allison Heller&amp;’s feature on the affordable housing problem in this issue (pp 50-55) highlights not only the difficulties of providing homes for key workers but some potential solutions and examples of good practice. And Brian Green&amp;’s assessment of the Housing Forum Demonstration Projects (pp 41-46), although acknowledging the private sector&amp;’s reluctance to get involved, also …