By Joey Jones, Deputy Political Editor
Sky's Joey Jones is travelling the country looking at the issues that matter to voters in some of the marginal constituencies.
Here he focuses on concerns about housing in Thurrock, Essex, one of the 150 seats that could play a deciding role in May's General Election.
THURROCK
There is a widespread assumption that in a general election campaign the parties deal with the issues that matter to people.
The economy, the cost of living... in the aftermath of a financial crisis these are issues in the forefronts of people's minds.
Immigration has been thrust to the top of the agenda as UKIP's success has demonstrated their competitors' failure to grasp the mood of the British people on the issue; the NHS, education and so on - central to the fabric of people's lives.
However, some issues that you might expect to feature strongly will not.
They will feature, but not as central themes. I have been looking at one example - housing.
The picture I found in Thurrock in Essex is typical for the South East of England in particular (though it is not exclusive to this region).
There is concern about private rental costs and a lack of housing stock (in particular council housing).
Skyrocketing prices are a central preoccupation.
But the reality is that there is no real benefit for political parties in making housing central to the political battleground.
For one thing, it is all too difficult.
No government has made particularly good progress in doing what all agree needs to be done - building more homes.
Beyond that though, housing is not a key "dividing line" issue.
Politicians like talking about things where they can say: "Look at the other lot - they would do it this way but they are wrong. We would do it differently and we would all be better off."
When it comes to a problem as intractable as housing, it is not too much of a caricature to say that Westminster orthodoxy is: "Isn't it all difficult? We will do our best. We'll do better than the other lot (and better than last time we had a crack at it)."
Thurrock is a dogfight between three parties (UKIP are mounting a fierce challenge to Labour and the Conservatives).
It is a place where you need to scrap for every vote.
That means choosing your ground carefully, fighting on issues where you are confident of landing meaningful blows.
Not surprisingly, then, the people I spoke to in Thurrock had no confidence that politicians could help improve the housing situation (with one exception - a man who felt that UKIP's desire to reduce immigration could free up accommodation).
It is all very well that voters have no confidence politicians can sort out a single, admittedly important, issue.
The wider danger is that if MPs cannot deal with something that really does make a difference to people's lives, they will only find themselves confronted with further cynicism and disenchantment.
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