In the wake of one of the worst economic recessions in many decades, experts connected with the construction industry have recently reported the fact that jobs within this sector have fallen by a massive 26,000, in Northern Ireland alone, since 2007. So goodness knows what the figure would be for the whole of the UK.

It would appear that new homes are simply not being built at the moment. People are moving less and may perhaps be investigating the possibility of equity release schemes connected with their own homes, rather than downsizing into a brand new property

We need to take into this equation the fact that our population is soaring at a rate of knots. Admittedly, most of these additional numbers have come about through uncontrolled immigration into the country, but this still places a huge burden on the available housing stock within the country.

Many building and construction companies would have had their fingers burnt at the end of the last housing boom. This must have plenty to do with why the industry has been going through the doldrums of late.

The fact remains that many tens of thousands of new properties are urgently required to house everyone in the country over the coming decades. If they are not being built right now, we simply will not have enough properties in the future.

This is somewhere the government needs to take urgent action. It is all very well bailing out the banks - who caused the economic crisis in the first instance and have failed to learn any lessons from this fact - but our housing stock needs help now.