No other EU country counts public borrowing for building homes as an add-on to public debt, regarding it instead as a commercial loan that will be repaid in rent and in the unquantifiable benefit of social cohesion. If the irreducibles of existence are love and death, homes are their concrete equivalent. When a nation is well-housed, then other problems – not least fear of immigrants and scorn for politicians – melt away. If, on the other hand, families lack the basic security of a home, then social ills and unrest will surely follow.