Steven Broomhead is chief executive of Warrington Borough Council and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian

One symptom of a growing housing supply shortage in relation to a growing demand is that over 50% of those aged 24 years or under are still living at home.

This figure has increased by 10% in the past 10 years. More than 25% of all adults under 30 now continue to live at home.

Flying the nest and parents who become ‘empty nesters’ is becoming a less and less home situation. This leads to family tensions around a number of issues as young adults want social independence without constant supervision and should parents charge rent and if so how much?

The main reason for this situation is the availability of mortgages in relation to spiralling prices and increased interest rates. The possible return of 100% mortgages may assist and the continuation of the government scheme “Help to Buy” would assist if government can be persuaded to continue with its scheme which is due to end soon and has put many young people on the housing ladder.

House building has become a more controversial issue. Where, how many and what type of housing is an ongoing debate in our town. Government has established a national target of 300,000 new homes every year and we are duty bound to make our contribution at an agreed number.

There’s the thorny issue of where to build and balancing housing need with the environment and the necessary infrastructure to support the people who will eventually live there. It’s a very difficult balancing act. There are some who think the “secret “plan is to “concrete over” all of our town.

The truth is far from this as careful consideration is always given to balancing a growing housing need with an appropriate carefully planned response. Despite rumours there are really no financial incentives to “build, build, build”.

Unfortunately, national planning policy in relation to home building is in somewhat of a chaos.

A big question for government and ourselves for future, given limited suitable land availability, what will be the optimum population for our town in the next 10 to 20 years?

How will we balance and manage this in relation to the environment, transport, schools, leisure, social facilities and jobs? standing still is not an option.