My one-man campaign to change the English property purchasing process has not got off to quite the flying start I had hoped. Spurred on by my own anger and indignation on behalf of clients, who were last week treated badly by a vendor, I imagined receiving the ear of cabinet ministers and their shadow numbers alike. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, as my progress plods rather than speeds forward.

I am meeting with the number two to Grant Shapps (the Tory shadow cabinet minister for housing) next week; the office of Labour minister John Healey has failed to return my call. I don’t know if this is due to the government’s summer recess – which is almost three months long – or if it is symptomatic of a party that’s suffering from fatigue after 12 years in power and has simply given up. My celebrity endorsement is yet to respond but I have high hopes that she will. I am thinking of forming a committee of top agents, lawyers and others related to property as it is clearly going to require more than just me and my indignation to move forward.