We will never know whether Shakespeare had foresight of the 21st century planning dilemma when he used the phrase “hoist with his own petard” in Hamlet. It is hard to deny that the present planning debacle between government ministers and bodies such as the National Trust is a 21st century tragedy. Daily rows in the media contain more emotion that rationality.

Hamlet’s actual meaning is of a bomb (petard) maker being blown up (hoist) by his own bomb. And so it is with ministers from the department for communities. They spent the last few years trying to demolish the planning regime introduced by the last government. The then opposition spokesmen and councillors claimed that housing targets were figments of the imagination of John Prescott imposed upon councils from on high. Now we have the same people in government telling councils they have to up their housing targets by 20% because there is a real housing crisis than cannot be ignored.

But it’s not just the complexity, slowness and expense of the planning system that is preventing new homes being built. This Letter to press by Weston Homes suggests that market failures are pulling the plug on affordable homes and that over-hasty changes to the funding regime for housing associations is partly to blame. This week’s front page of the Saffron Walden Weekly News said it all; demand for social housing has doubled in the past year.