ACCORDING

to a government inquiry, home ownership among young families has halved over the past 35 years — proving what we already know: there is a real shortage of affordable housing. Forced to rent, young people are at the mercy of landlords who drain their meagre earnings with no chance of long-term stability or any kind of return on their investment. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this issue. Tony Blair won an election on ‘education, education, education’. If the Tories want a chance of winning again, there is only one mantra that matters: ‘Housing, housing, housing.’