But there have been signs in recent weeks that the patience of NTL's chief executive is running

But there have been signs in recent weeks that the patience of NTL's chief executive is running out.NTL is now believed to be pushing for a side deal with CWC that would shut Telewest out completely. NTL yesterday refused to comment.One source close to the CWC and Telewest talks said yesterday: "Everyone knows where we are supposed to get to but whether we get there this week or next year, nobody knows."CWC has also received approaches from other parties, including France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, the French and German telecoms groups, which are both looking for a way into the UK domestic telecoms market and have had considerable experience within their own domestic cable industries.Hopes of a three-way deal were boosted in May when as a result of a series of cable industry deals in the United States, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, the American software giant, emerged with a 30 per cent stake in Telewest to add to his 5 per cent stake in NTL.Analysts have expressed concern that without an agreement soon, the cable companies will not be in a position to make the most of what, potentially, is a strong competitive position in battling with both BSkyB and ONdigital to sign up digital tv audiences.NTL, which was formed out of the old independent television transmitter operation, has been in the spotlight recently because of talk that it may revive its interest in taking over Newcastle United, the football club, dropped after the Government vetoed the Sky takeover of Manchester United.. CWC, which is 53 per cent owned by Cable & Wireless, has been locked in talks with Telewest about a merger for months, but the two sides have so far been unable to agree terms that would satisfy both their larger shareholders and bondholders who have a significant slice of capital tied in both groups. CWC has been aware of NTL's desire not to be sidelined in the consolidation of the UK cable industry but has so far preferred to press ahead with its planned two-way deal with Telewest while leaving the door open to other parties to enter wider negotiations at a later date. NTL, THE Nasdaq-quoted cable operator, is believed to be trying to gatecrash attempts by rivals Cable & Wireless Communications and Telewest to forge a two-way cable alliance to create a counterweight to Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB in the UK pay-TV market. Myth 7 is very harmful since the government seems to believe it and appears to be acting on it.David Miles is Professor of Finance at Imperial College and an adviser to Merrill Lynch.. Price rises are a means of rationing demand to match supply; they do not make us better off. This is more obvious when we focus on land - a commodity in fixed supply and whosecharacteristics hardly change.

Rising land prices, per se, do not increase national productivity and do not enhance standards of living.Most of these myths are harmless enough but some are not. Physical characteristics of houses do not change when prices rise sharply in a boom and it is those characteristics that are valuable. Big regional house price gaps help this process.Myth 9: "Prices just can't keep going up."Fixed supply of land, rising incomes ... say no more.Myth 10: "As house prices go up the value of the UK's stock of wealth goes up and we are, nationally, better off."The problem with this is that UK houses are, overwhelmingly, lived in and owned by current and future UK households. People should be encouraged to move to less crowded areas where houses are empty. The South-east of England is already too crowded and transport systems are cracking.

But to talk about "shortages" is misleading, unhelpful and probably harmful.Myth 8: "House price differences between regions in the UK are far too great and are bad for labour mobility."On the contrary, house price differences are likely to alleviate crowding in densely crowded areas by encouraging firms and workers to move to areas where the cost of living is lower. If you want to encourage divorce, speed up family breakdown and reduce green space then by all means build more houses. Encouraging faster growth in household formation is largely a euphemism for encouraging divorce and family breakdown. If we want to stop real house prices rising as fast as they otherwise would, building lots of houses will achieve this and will encourage faster household formation rates.