If you remember the millennium celebrations like they were yesterday, perhaps imagine fast-forwarding the same period of time plus a couple of years. Doesn't seem long, does it?
That will be when England is likely to face a shortfall of 750,000 homes, 325,000 of them in London alone, according to a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research that is based on the government's own projections.
Little wonder that Labour leader Ed Miliband, who I sometimes wonder is overplaying the role of the silent type, has emphasised the need for more social housing and is prepared to lead a government that would invest £1.2bn in it.
The need for social housing, or affordable housing, is greater than ever. Despite the floundering economy, house prices remain high and well out of reach of many first-time buyers who are unable to save for the 20% deposit now required from lenders because the rents they pay to have a roof over their heads are equally outrageous.
That we will be 750,000 homes short by the mid-2020s is alarming. That the likes of London mayor Boris Johnson is so opposed to housing for the less well-off (he scrapped Greater London's 50% target for affordable new-build) and his pledge to construct 50,000 new homes under his watch remains filed under Bluster is irresponsible.
But Johnson would have little personal experience of overcrowding and the pernicious effects it can have on, say, children's education and the tensions that might spill over into wider society.
If the IPPR forecasts prove accurate, the problem can only become worse, particularly with every politician in government hailing our new, lacklustre Austerity Britain, fingers jabbing at the opposition benches, a snook cocked at the rest of us, excusing themselves of action.
But, then, in 2025, that will be someone else's problem, won't it?
Picture: Nick Cobbing/Rex Features
