The key cause of those problems is not a failure to build enough homes but a failure to build the right kind in the right places and a failure to maintain and improve existing homes and the good quality local public services which would make them attractive propositions.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way. When Margaret Thatcher launched the Right to Buy scheme it was meant to pave the way for the country becoming a homeowner democracy.

At the time it was a hugely popular policy. Indeed most reasonable people still think it is a good thing when longstanding council tenants are given the right to buy a home they’ve lived in for years. It is normally to the advantage of the entire community to have a mix of privately owned and council owned properties on a large estate.

Unfortunately the positive sides to the policy were accompanied by a reckless and irresponsible use of the proceeds. Instead of using the money from council house sales to build new homes or improve old ones all that happened is that most of the money disappeared into the depths of national government finances. The inevitable consequence was a slow and steady decline in the availability of good quality secure homes from the local council.

In 1979, 31 per cent of the country rented their home from a local authority of a not for profit housing association. By 2021 the proportion was down to only 17 per cent – much of it tired and maintained by local authorities which simply don’t have the money to do the job properly.

A hugely important part of the supply was simply no longer available to those who most needed it.

It took a long time to create that problem. It might take every bit as long to put the situation right.

Even if the government announced today that it was going to reverse policy and find every way that it could to help to expand the provision of good quality social housing it would be years before the situation noticeably improved.

Don’t hold your breath on that happening. This is a government that is intellectually convinced that public housing should not be a significant part of the solution.

Unfortunately, an over-confidence in the contribution of private developers is the other huge failure of housing policy. Left to their own devices, developers will build on the easiest sites in the most popular locations the properties that can fetch the best prices on the market. That isn’t remotely the same thing as building for need.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with letting the private sector play a significant role in solving a problem of housing shortage. There is everything wrong with assuming they will always and everywhere do the right thing without some guidance, incentive and control from local and national authorities.

Many of our towns and cities across Yorkshire contain large areas of housing which have become rundown but could be turned into very good homes with a bit of support from the government.

Certainly, many of the occupants could benefit from the lower fuel costs that come with new windows, better roofs, more modern heating systems and a couple of solar panels. That opportunity is being badly neglected.

Instead, most developers have concentrated on building on the outskirts of our more traditional built up areas and we are seeing field after field being gobbled up by new estates.

Once attractive towns and suburbs are being inundated with new housing estates that often offer large numbers of executive homes that will sell well to those moving out of London and the South East but are way beyond the budgets of people on local salaries.

Housebuilding in new locations will always have its proper place in improving supply. So should home improvements on existing stock, development of more difficult brownfield sites, and identification of improvement areas where schools can be lifted up as the same time as existing housing is repurposed and made more appealing.

There are parts of our community that will never be economic to redevelop without serious support from the government.

If we are to find good quality homes for many more people who need them any time soon it is going to be necessary to recognise two things. Central government must provide funding and support for local government and housing associations to provide more good quality rental homes at reasonable prices. On top of that it must help to restore the housing stock in our inner cities instead of naively hoping against hope that private developers will somehow magic up enough affordable new homes to meet the need.

Andy Brown is a Craven District Councillor representing Aire Valley with Lothersdale and the Green Party North Yorkshire Councillor for Aire Valley

Developers can't be left to own devices to fix Yorkshire's housing crisis: Andy Brown