It was piquant to hear the Council has won an award for its management of empty houses.

The previous day I looked at the exhibition for the block of flats proposed for the Marina, and asked one of the fellows if he was sure he would be able to sell so many of them. Where would the buyers come from? Where is the local work for them?

Candidly, he told me, on past experience, a third would be bought by people to live in, a third as buy-to-let and a third bought but left empty as an investment.

How extraordinary that, when one hears all this is driven by the need for more homes, the result is, from the outset, more empty homes.

-Christopher Hawtree, Hove