Wasn’t it uplifting to see a room full of ministers that actually looked like they wanted to sit in the cabinet? Better still, each and every one of them has put in the hard yards to get ready for their role. What a change from the musical chairs of the last decade or so.

But where do they make a start? On so many bread and butter services, like transport and hospitals, Britain is broke. Yet the conundrum is that we punch well above our weight on science and technology. You can’t get from A to B, but our Formula One cars are the best in the world. Britain can fix any problem it wants to, but for a long time we’ve chosen not to.

Now, you can’t do everything at once but I’d like to make the case to tackle housing early. Why do I say that? It would win hearts and minds while at the same time growing the economy.

On a personal note, I honestly believe I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve got. But younger people just think that us boomers won our houses off an Omaze lucky dip. It’s hard to argue against them. We must give younger people the same chances that we enjoyed to get a home. If we turn our backs on them, they will seek more radical solutions.

When people have a stable home they’re more likely to have children. Well, at least they have a choice to make. It’s a bold step to start a family when you live in a tiny high-cost private-rented flat with little or no security of tenure. Time and again I read learned articles pointing out that the low birthrate is dragging the economy down. To state the obvious, building homes would do the opposite and boost growth.

“We’re swimming in data about housing need. Can we pull together analysis pinning down the problems locally and saying what we could achieve by operating more efficiently ourselves?”

So, how do I think we should go about turning housing round? First things first, we need a total ban on listening to think tanks. If Policy Exchange had their way, there wouldn’t be any council homes left at all in Keir Starmer’s Camden or even in some parts of Angela Rayner’s Stockport. The best people to talk to are residents. Back in the Blair days at the NFA, we always sent in our tenants to talk to ministers. Ministers wanted the message straight, not filtered by, frankly, the likes of me. I’d go back to that. Mind you, I do like the appointment of James Timpson on prisons. Perhaps we could follow suit and give Kwajo Tweneboa and Darren McGarvey main parts in housing? We could sure use their intellect and oomph. They’d be big step up on the flaky Tory housing ministers that flounced out every five minutes.

In fairness the housing minsters were right to walk. They had no powers to do anything much at all. Where are the homes they were going to build? It took forever to put in place a regime to oust poor managers after Grenfell. And it doesn’t work that well. Michael Gove sent many angry letters to underperforming social landlords. But most of the time it was just sabre-rattling. To quote Lord Collins of Helmsdale, its time to rip it up and start again.

By way of contrast, the last Labour government was just a lot sharper. They had a well thought through set of carrots and sticks that helped to drive up performance at Camden and Stockport. Will Keir and Angela think about going back to that regime? Put simply, inspectors went in to vet the quality of landlords and if the landlord passed muster it qualified for extra cash to fix homes.

In England today we have more sticks than a demented labrador. Both the RSH and the Housing Ombudsman have burgeoning inspection teams. So far the ombudsman reports have been tough; soon we’ll see what the RSH teams make of things. On top of that, we’re about to issue satisfaction figures for landlords that are in many cases terrible.

This comes as a surprise to nobody. From 2010 until the night of Grenfell, almost no one in a position of power gave a damn about housing management. George Osborne slashed rents while boards diverted cash into building new homes. Often these new homes were in complex blocks with crippling service charges on punitive shared ownership leases. Hence satisfaction levels are rock bottom. This is a heck of a legacy for Matthew Pennycook. How does he fix the problems of the past while designing a low-cost homeownership option that works? As with all of the housing agenda, it will take cash.

The housing sector must prove that it needs the cash and it’ll spend it wisely. Frankly, we’re in competition with other services. For obvious reasons the NHS and defence are big priorities. I very much like the 20 recommendations in Julian Richer’s Our Housing Disaster and What We Can Do About It. But we must put our best foot forward if we’re to play a role here.

All landlords now hold satisfaction data and many have, or will have, inspection reports. We’re swimming in data about housing need. Can we pull together analysis pinning down the problems locally and saying what we could achieve by operating more efficiently ourselves? Then state the government funding needed to ensure new and old homes are places we’d all be proud to live in. It’s going to be a colossal sum so we’ll be making tough choices for decades to come. I’d put mayors in charge of delivery in their areas with powers to go with it.

As luck would have it, Keir Starmer has made a painstaking study of managing in adversity. Like many of us, he’s witnessed first hand the struggles of building a new stadium for Arsenal, including the ups and downs of using home sales to pay for it, while keeping a cup-winning team on the park. And all the time, rivals are using every trick in the book to get ahead of us by fair means or foul. If that’s not a metaphor for running the country, I don’t know what is! When the inevitable backlash comes, Keir should return to North London and sit down for a nice Italian meal with Arsene Wenger. He’d find a way.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN