The irony, of course, is that housing is an area in which Labour has made some progressive reforms. There is valid criticism over the party’s changes to planning legislation and its wrongheaded “build, baby, build” supply-side approach to solving the housing crisis, which will do little to lower prices. But there has also been some welcome funding and legislation. The party aims to spend £39bn building 300,000 affordable homes over a decade, 60% of which will be for social rent. And the Renters’ Rights Act, which recently received royal assent, will make the UK more closely aligned with European norms on rental regulation, protecting tenants from no-fault evictions and unreasonable costs. There are also rumours that the budget will involve some changes to property taxation, with the plan to put expensive houses in a higher council tax band. This is the least radical option for raising revenue from wealthy homeowners, but still a clear improvement on the present system.