In 1883 the Liberal MP for Hanley addressed his electors, describing “a great and growing evil and injustice in our towns and suburban districts, vitally affecting the welfare of our tradesmen as well as our working classes. It is called the leasehold system.” Some 141 years later, the ghost of leasehold still haunts UK housing policy. It is now accompanied by other gremlins: failure to build, insane rules about the shape of windows, political inertia, the impact of mass migration – but the spec