Social housing is a crucial issue as we face the prospect of an election.We need to build large numbers of council and social homes again in our country. Earlier this year, I was part of Shelter’s social housing commission on precisely this subject which recommended 3.1 million homes over the next 20 years.

We need serious investment in housing like any other type of infrastructure. The Labour Party agreed at conference that it would build 155,000 social rented homes a year.