AS GEORGE OSBORNE prepared to deliver his autumn statement, on December 2nd, Danny Alexander, his Liberal Democrat deputy at the Treasury, announced a slew of investments in infrastructure. These included a much-needed £15 billion ($24 billion) for roads, as well as £2.3 billion for flood defences. Mr Alexander tried to make much of the coalition’s plans on housing, too, trumpeting 13,000 new homes to be built at Bicester, a town in Oxfordshire, which would then be designated as a garden city. The government will need to do much more, however, to solve Britain’s housing problem.