Right to room 5

Altering the legislation will do little to ease the problem of overcrowding. Our rules governing the number of rooms families are entitled to are already, like those of most housing associations and councils, far more generous than the legal minimum.

The problem is a chronic shortage of larger affordable rented homes to accommodate growing families, resulting in an ever lengthening transfer list, with overcrowded households waiting years to move. We can't move these families into homes that don't exist. In my association, more than a third of households on our transfer list are overcrowded and we are struggling to meet their needs. Our local authority partners are in the same boat.

Of course the overcrowding laws need to be updated, but the solution is not more laws, it's more homes. Unless government puts serious money into building even more homes, the current transfer list log-jam can only worsen and – irrespective of what the law says – families like the Clacksons will continue to get a raw deal.