It was with a sense of déjà vu mixed with dread that I read last Sunday's media headlines in which the Conservatives ‘promise a council house revolution.'

This pledge happens oddly enough every time we have an election and then promptly disappears. In fact lost in the small print of Monday's papers was a minister's passing mention that there is no new money for this ‘revolution' and no figures attached. Mind you, Labour has also promised to build 500,00 homes and the Liberal Democrats 300,000 over the next five years, figures plucked from the air.