The market cannot solve the UK's housing crisis

Islington Labour Councillor James Murray writes that the Con Dem Government's hands off approach to the housing crisis (in terms of affordability and scarcity) is failing and calls for state investment in social housing:
  'A comprehensive response means investing in new social housing, with councils – who in many places are landlords with huge stocks – helping to solve the crisis. Investing in new social housing, rather than spending on benefits to subsidise private rents, would help raise the number of new homes, of the sort we need in the places we need them. Regulating the private rental market should play a role in any solution, whilst potential home buyers could be helped through financial regulation, and by looking at new solutions like cooperative models of ownership'
http://classonline.org.uk/docs/Time_to_step_in-James_Murray.pdf