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The latest affordable housing figures are out, and predictably they're creating a bit of a stink.

There were just 454 affordable housing starts from April to September this year.

Despite the growing hoo-hah emanating from the commentariat, this is unsurprising. The 2008-11 National Affordable Housing Programme ended in March, and with deals for the 2011-15 Affordable Homes Programme only being signed from September onwards, no additional funding was available during this six-month period. The only units which started on site were therefore those NAHP units whose development progress had lagged behind schedule. It's not a reflection of the government's housing strategy, and it's a blip, not a trend.

But, judging by the coverage this has received so far, nobody is in much of a mood to listen to these points. And therefore - as we predicted some time ago - housing minister Grant Shapps is going to learn the hard way that playing the numbers game was a very ill-advised move indeed.

Our editor has written an article for the Guardian about land policy, and how it could boost housing supply.

A bit of a contentious thought, this, but it has been mooted during office discussion that there have only ever been three new things which have happened in the social housing sector.

These, the thinking runs, were: the introduction of private finance in the late 1980s; the invention of large-scale voluntary stock transfers; and, now, the introduction of affordable rent.

Everything else, the argument goes, is the same as it ever was - if you work in the sector for long enough, you'll see the same ideas floating past again and again.

A controversial assertion, perhaps. But do you agree?