Brexit spooks the markets, but the housing crisis will swing more votes

‘I rang and said can I have a council house, I’ve nowhere to go, an’ the bloke said no you can’t, we need them all for t’Romanians,’ was a remark offered by a fellow patient, known to me as Fat Lad, when I was hospitalised three years ago. ‘I’m telling you, I’m the biggest Ukip supporter there is…’ he went on, illuminating how — unnoticed by the comfortable classes — a shortage of social and affordable housing was helping to fuel the national mood that eventually led to the Leave vote.

Belatedly, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has had a Damascene moment: ‘Tackling the housing shortage is not about political expediency,’ he declares. ‘It is a moral duty.’ He and Philip Hammond have pledged £2 billion to fund accelerated housebuilding on public land, plus a £3 billion Home Builders’ Fund to encourage smaller builders and developers.

This will act as a Keynesian stimulus through the Brexit turbulence the Chancellor warned of in his conference speech — but I doubt it will come close to filling the gap between the 170,000 homes currently built each year and the 250,000 that experts say we need, both to house a growing population and to hold the price of housing down.