I am sat at my lap top researching for a short talk I will be giving later this week over lunch with Finders Keepers - Sunday Times award winning local property letting company - and some of their property landlords.

So my challenge is to inspire some controversial debate and heated conversation around our table about what I believe can be quite a divisive issue 'the right to decent shelter'.

However, the community foundation and I thrive on opportunities like this that enable us to highlight some of the many social problems that exist locally within communities and our relationship with property is I believe one such conundrum. As it seems to me there is an ideological divide between owners and non owners of property. How we relate to those experiencing homelessness is one such example.

For so many housing is considered a social requirement like health and education, yet how many politicians have we heard talking about their party's policy on such an important topic in the run up to the May 7th election? Very few indeed...

Perhaps what interests me most is the sad reality that housing so often impacts our life chances; economic fortunes and misfortunes are so easily affected by something as simple as a particular street or more regional geographic area.

Danny Dorling is an eminent and prolific writer on inequality and I would recommend politicians and councillors consider what he has to suggest in terms of potential solutions to our property crisis and why building more houses won't necessarily solve the problem.