The famous Barker Report into the state of housing in the UK probably amounted to the single best argument ever for the long term prospects of investing in UK property.

There are, said Kate Barker, a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, not enough properties to meet demand and there will not be enough for many years.

Actually, what she said was: '...An additional 145,000 homes per annum would be required in the UK to lower real house price inflation to the European average of 1.1% and that an additional 240,000 houses would be needed in the UK to lower real house price inflation to zero...'

In 2001 around 175,000 houses were built in the whole UK. An extra 145,000 would represent an unrealistic 83 per cent increase.

Now Kate Barker has released what is effectively a follow up report - the Barker Review of Land Use Planning.