Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the party will help the homeless by buying 8,000 homes “to give immediate housing” to those who need it. There are now around 5,000 people living on the streets around the country, a 15 per cent rise on the same period in 2016. Speaking on theBBC ‘s Andrew Marr Show , he vowed to grant councils the power to take over homes deliberately left empty by developers.

Mr Corbyn said there is “something grossly insulting” about deliberately leaving a property empty “knowing that with property price inflation the investor is going to make 10% or 12% a year.”

He added that his stance is about “social priorities,” saying that if in power, Labour would intervene on the housing market in a “number of ways” to help social tenants, private renters and first time buyers.