The Guardian: "For many, home ownership will always be out of reach. To ignore them would go against my belief in 'one nation' Conservatism"

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"[As a Conservative MP,] I am proud to be part of a government that describes itself as one nation. To me, this label is not about trying to please everybody, or even the somewhat patrician 'wet' Toryism of the past. Rather, it is a sincere attempt to govern with a profound sense of the national interest, with particular regard to those who may not naturally vote for us – whether the policies necessary to secure that support are popular, or the tough but necessary decisions generally required.

"In that case, what is a one nation housing policy? In my view, it must be one that includes not just those who own a home or aspire to do so, but those who currently rent and are likely to continue to do so for many years to come.

"... what we need is a housing policy reset, and the signs are that we are going to get one. My colleague Gavin Barwell, our new housing minister, used a speech earlier this month to confirm that the government will no longer focus on 'one single tenure'. This is very encouraging, and I'm sure a keyword we will soon be hearing a lot of is 'flexibility'."

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April 2016:

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"More rent than pay a mortgage: the Tory dream for London has crashed and burned"

"Politics often lags behind reality. But when the two get too badly out of sync, what’s produced is disaster. For proof, look at the catastrophe that is housing in London. We are in the final straight of the capital's mayoral race. An odd, ugly and racist contest, it is also a remarkable one – perhaps the first housing election ever held in postwar Britain. Housing is the thing that Zac Goldsmith, Sadiq Khan and the rest of the candidates bang on about the most – rightly so, as it's the biggest topic for voters. Yet the terms used by politicians are as inadequate as the policies they devise.

"... The idea that Generation Rent is the one with the problem is for the birds: London is becoming a city of renters. Nor is that trend likely to reverse. The consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that, in less than 10 years, 60% of the capital will be renting from a private landlord or a housing association.

"Let that point sink in, because only then do you grasp how much it changes politics in London. Britain's political economy remains shaped by Margaret Thatcher's desire to create a property-owning democracy: one in which Britons held shares in the privatised utilities and building societies and owned their own homes."