The shocking joint investigation by the Guardian and ITV News into the emergence of slum-like housing conditions in England exposes the seamy underbelly of modern prosperity: convicted rogue landlords are allowed to continue renting out homes, and tower blocks owned by foreign owners rake in profits from publicly funded rents – while tenants suffer potentially dangerous housing conditions. For too long politicians have ignored the needs of private renters, preferring light regulation of landlords. This is a mistake. Declining home ownership and a shortage of rented social housing have seen a surge in the number of people renting privately – particularly families with young children. This has resulted in an unequal and unfair housing market. Fewer people have any properties and more have many. Housing has been allowed to become a publicly funded financial asset for overseas investors. As a society we have failed to provide decent, secure and affordable homes – particularly for those on low incomes.

Ministers need to change their mindset to address widespread market failures. It is hard to explain why there is a growing waiting list for social housing and a rise in homelessness when 200,000 homes stand empty. Last year Theresa May pledged to take “personal charge” of government plans to fix the UK’s “broken” housing market. Twelve months on, her government has been pusillanimous in its attempts to do so. Unbelievably, there is currently no minimum standard that properties have to meet before they are let. After six months the new rogue landlord database remains empty. Why have ministers made it so difficult to issue banning orders to put landlords and their agents out of business? It is ludicrous that landlords featured in the investigation, who failed a “fit and proper” test in parts of the country, could continue to let out properties elsewhere.

For too long Conservative politicians have been indifferent to the housing crisis, which has been marked by poor quality accommodation and insecurity in the private rented sector. Given how quickly this sector is growing – up to a third of millennials face renting from cradle to grave – it is bizarre that the Tories have no offer to match Labour’s policies, which set out to level the playing field for renters. Mrs May instead has opted to copy many of her opponents’ signature policies, a sure sign of intellectual vacuity.

The list of acts of omission by this government over housing is a lengthy one. But a slavish adherence to landlordism carries a political cost. In last year’s election, renters deserted the Conservative party. The Conservatives trail Labour by an average of 22 points among private renters in the 60 most marginal constituencies. It may be too late for the Tories, who appear beholden to the building lobby and landlords. By 2022, one former aide to Mrs May says, there will be only 88 parliamentary seats where 70 % of all homes are occupied by homeowners, down from 330 seats in 2001.

Britain needs to rethink its relationship with property. Land speculation and monopoly land ownership, on top of abundant mortgage credit, has made housing unaffordable for too many. Building more houses will help in the long term. There is a good case to tax the capital gains in housing more rigorously to put a brake on speculation. Being transparent about property and land ownership feels necessary. Council tax is ripe for reform. Collective forms of housing – council houses, housing associations, housing co-operatives – ought to be promoted. The first step must be to regulate private landlords in a meaningful way, with rent caps considered – and laws to stop rogue businesses from operating. We need to stretch the vocabulary of the politically feasible in housing, because politicians in power have no ideas of their own worth hearing.