People experiencing homelessness are in our thoughts at Christmas.

It’s heart-breaking to read reports of rough sleepers dying outside in sub-zero temperatures.

While there is undoubtedly a complex backstory behind every case, this shouldn’t be happening in the world’s sixth biggest economy.

Rough sleeping is the extreme, but it’s no John Lewis Christmas ad for those sofa surfing or living in other insecure circumstances.

As shadow minister for building safety and homelessness, I’ve been highlighting latest Government figures showing 139,000 children are in temporary accommodation this Christmas.

It’s upsetting to think about the pressures their families must be under and the impact on young minds.

How did it come to this?

We simply aren’t building enough homes, and market homes on sale are beyond the pockets of many working people.

In the past, social housing for affordable rent made up a large part of the housing supply but they were sold off under ‘right to buy’ and not replaced in sufficient numbers. Last year, just 8,386 new social homes were built in England.

When I recently tried to help a constituent from Northwich secure such a home, I was told there were 400 applications per week and 7,500 people on the waiting list.

For many, private renting is the only option, but rents have rocketed and conditions at the cheaper end can be appalling.

In addition, landlords are using Section 21 'no fault' evictions to turf tenants out every three minutes. Labour has pledged to stop this practice if the Tories don’t.

Government’s approach to the housing crisis has been an overreliance on the market to deliver the homes we need but their target of building 300,000 new homes per year has now been abandoned.

Labour’s plan is to build 1.5 million new homes over one parliament.

We believe in home ownership, not for profiteers and speculators, but for ordinary working people – nurses, electricians, delivery drivers and care workers – and that’s got to be part of the mix.

However, for some, servicing a mortgage is a million miles away from their pay packet so there must be other options.

We would turbo-charge the proportion of genuinely affordable, social and council houses delivered, alongside planning reform to enable that to happen.

Getting Britain building again would also create skilled jobs and kick-start our economy following too many years of sluggish growth.