Last month, the UK experienced an unusual weather phenomenon known as “anticyclonic gloom”. A period of high pressure locked large parts of the country into a seemingly unending period of fog and drizzle and general greyness, with the worst-affected village recording just 12 minutes of sunshine in 11 days.

While this was an aberration worthy of note for most people in the country, the housebuilding sector could be forgiven for thinking it was business as usual, operating as it has been for so long, under gloomy clouds of its own.