In London, the housing crisis is right up there alongside Brexit in the list of issues making residents most anxious.

High rents stand out as a key concern, and housing benefit rates have failed to keep pace. There is also a growing perception that a process of neighbourhood ‘gentrification' is pricing residents out of communities. Nearly 7,500 people sleep rough on the city's streets, and the system of council-provided temporary accommodation is at breaking point. Buying any London home is completely out of reach for more and more people in the capital.