The committee will monitor the government’s performance on meeting its pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament. 

Supported Family Building Society, the panel will oversee progress, provide constructive analysis and policy suggestions on housing delivery. 

The committee says it aims to broaden the debate away from what it calls “the government’s disproportionate focus on new build”. 

Cable, who was party leader from 2017 to 2019 and business secretary in the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition government between 2010 and 2015, will be joined on the committee by other politicians and senior figures from across the industry.

These include Labour MP for Basingstoke Luke Murphy, former first secretary of state in Theresa May’s Conservative government Damian Green, Family Building Society chief executive Mark Bogard, Home Builders Federation chief executive Neil Jefferson, Centre for Economics and Business Research chief economic adviser Vicky Pryce, Architectural Association School of Architecture director Ingrid Schroder and LSE London director Professor Tony Travers.

Further academic support will be offered by Professor Christine Whitehead of the LSE and Christ College Cambridge director of studies in land economy Kelvin McDonald.

The group will meet every six months starting this month to assess progress and issue a report. 

It may also commission occasional papers on housing-related matters. 

The committee’s aims are:

• To review the government’s policy announcements, actions and consequences
• To monitor actions and policies of wider housing stakeholders (housebuilders, lenders, Bank of England, Landlords and others) that have a direct effect on the delivery of an integrated housing policy that covers both new and existing housing stock. 
• To provide informed and authoritative commentary on housing policy issues as they evolve. 
• To commission, where necessary, independent reports to explore in more detail subject areas relevant to the above.

Cable says: “The government has – rightly – put housing at the heart of its growth and social policy agenda. 

“Our committee will endeavour to give a fair and informed assessment of its progress.”

Bogard says: “Housing really matters to everyone, every night when they go to bed. 

“But housing policy has been a shambles for at least 50 years. 

“Judging how politicians, councillors and civil servants are doing, marking 

their homework, matters to people.

“It impacts how they perform. 

“We have a statutory Climate Change Committee.

“We have an Office of Budget Responsibility. 

“Housing matters just as much.

“So, we’ve set one up – hopefully, in time, fairly quickly, Parliament will set up a statutory one. 

“Meanwhile, it is absolutely clear that the time has come for a coherent, long-term housing policy. 

“Successive governments have systematically failed to deliver a strategy that works. 

“Everyone knows it. 

“This committee aims to help remedy this by monitoring the almost weekly announcements on housing are aligned and work for the benefit of all. 

“Our committee will highlight the good, the bad and the ugly of government housing policy and its delivery. 

“After so many years of undelivered promises and failures, our country deserves a housing policy that actually works.”