7 in 10 years, 10 in 15 years, average political life expectancy of 1.3 years. I have heard and misquoted enough statistics about coming and going housing ministers to keep me going until the inevitable next one comes along.

I liked Gavin Barwell, and I get the sense that a lot of the industry did too. He was moderate, no doubt, but for a Conservative Government focused on careful spending he was moving *slowly* in the right direction – garden villages, build-to-rent and brownfield land registers - all good things.

Then there was a general election.

I’m not coy about saying I was ambivalent about this general election. It was the last thing the country needed and now we have come out with a weaker government, who may or may not be propped up by the DUP. To cap it all off our housing minister lost his seat.

So the industry’s friend Gavin Barwell has gone to be Chief of Staff for the Prime Minister – not long after writing a book on how to win marginals. Now his former position – London Minister and Housing and Planning Minister – has been split in two. The new London Minister is Greg Hands and the new Housing Minister is Alok Sharma – MP for Reading West (and a former chartered accountant).

I could now give you a list of 10 things he needs to do as housing minister. But I think we need to recognise that housing is not one man’s issue.

Everyone knows that we have a housing crisis – one that Labour and Conservative governments alike haven’t dealt with. The current administration even spent 20 odd pages of the Housing White Paper telling us about it. With potentially another election round the corner, and Brexit set to dominate life as we know it for the conceivable future, we need now more than ever to recognise that delivering houses is a responsibility shared by national government, local government and the development industry alike.

At a national level, housing needs to be given a platform to make real changes – a housing minister in the Cabinet.

At a local level, councils need to produce local plans that meets the projected growth in their area, enforced by a government stick if need be.

And outside of the political fold we need housebuilders to bring forward sites for development, and ensure the right mix of tenure.

To solve the housing crisis we need to recognise it’s not solely the responsibility of the housing minister, everyone in the sector has their part to play.

Or to quote Iceni Executive Director Ian Anderson’s latest blog, maybe we need to “Suck it up, and get on with it”.