Agreed. Questions about form of tenure are all side issues - it's more supply that is needed, whether owner occupied, private rented or social housing. The issue with local societies is whether they are part of the problem, which, without their wishing to be, I think they are. I think they could be part of the solution if they understood the problem properly, and would say how and where they would welcome more housing in their areas. The reference to the Community Infrastructure Levy and Neighbourhood Forums in the OP is there because the Localism Act is meant to set up incentives for local groups to do what I say they should be doing.

FH Soc is more likely to be able to do the right thing than other local societies, not least because their leading figures are relatively young, and facing the problem of bringing up families against the backgrond of this dysfunctional housing market, rather than older, like me, living as beneficiaries of accumulated intergenerational inequity. But to see what the right thing is, they need to get to grips with the underlying economics.