Now is the time to build the next generation of safe, secure and environmentally sound social housing, says Baroness Sharon Taylor, to prevent homelessness from blighting people’s lives

It is hardly contentious to say that safe, secure affordable housing is the foundation stone upon which opportunity and life chances are built. Housing is and should be one of our most basic human rights.

Of course, we have known this for generations. Unfortunately, a combination of lack of action by government, protection of housing as a source of corporate profit, and a failure to implement plans that address the scale and complexity of the problem have led to a chronic housing emergency. One that leaves too many of our fellow citizens with a terrible hopelessness – that their dream of owning a home to help achieve their potential and aspirations is just a distant mirage.