Upwards not outwards is the UK Government’s response to the overwhelming need to build more homes for Britain’s growing population. Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, told the House of Commons that the primary thrust of his policy for providing a million more homes by 2020 is to increase housing density within existing towns rather than to allow the development of the rural areas surrounding them. This means, in effect, encouraging the building of new high-rise apartment blocks rather than sacrificing Green Belt land for traditional housing.

That there is a severe housing shortage, and that neither this nor previous governments have done anything like enough to tackle it, is common ground. Scarcity has forced house prices up beyond society’s pain threshold. One consequence is a sea change from home ownership to rented accommodation.