I was quite shocked at the breathtaking attitudes of Tory Housing Minister Brandon Lewis towards the biggest social issue of the day. In an interview with the Sunday Times he said “I’m not entirely convinced that publishing a strategy actually achieves what we want.” Apparently all the hundreds of thousands of new houses that we so desperately need are going to build themselves or was he thinking that the marvellous free market, which has never managed to build even half the houses we needs over the last decade, will somehow provide the solution.

What we really need is lots more affordable housing

He went on to say “if you get too much regulation in the sector, it drives down supply, and in the long run that’s bad for tenants.” I wonder which plane Brandon Lewis lives on as he clearly does not recognise the plight of millions of his fellow countrymen having to live with rent increases that have far outstripped inflation ove rthe last many years, of the hundreds of thousands of people who long to buy their own home but have no chance of doing so anywhere south of Birmingham.

Frankly if this is the man in charge of bulding the 250,000 new homes we need each year to satisfy new demands for housing then we are in a hopeless situation. I dread to think how many Tory MPs, like Brandon Lewis, are hoping that the housing market will continue to malfunction whilst pushing up the income they receive from homes that they themselves rent out privately.

I also wonder just how much money is paid in housing benefit to help those who cnnot afford the sky high rents. After all this is public money being paid over to private landlords which just continues the status quo of too many people having to live beyond their means in overpriced rental accommodation.