Housing should be kept at local authority level

I agree with my long standing colleague Fergus Finlay that a new Government must have, as an absolute priority, the ending of homelessness and our housing crisis.

I disagree however, with every bone in my body, his suggestion that the way to do this is through a single agency.

Sadly the record will demonstrate that it was when housing responsibility was passed to the scandalously named and established Affordable Housing Partnership – now the Housing Agency – and away from Local Government that the problem mushroomed and grew.