The Government wants councils in the West of England sub-region to oversee the provision of more than 117,000 new homes by 2025. That is an increase of 11,000 units on the figure first mooted.

There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that house building as an industry is grinding to a halt and that it is unlikely to recover for another two years, perhaps more. The big housebuilding firms are suffering huge losses and laying off workers by the thousand.

When do ‘targets’ become mere wishful thinking?

I entered the world of work as an indentured junior reporter on 1 October 1973. It wasn’t long before the economy of the Western World was on its knees.

It wasn’t my fault, of course. An OPEC oil embargo on the USA, UK and other nations who supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War at the end of my first week quickly forced a quadrupling of petrol prices. By November Ted Heath’s government had declared a state of emergency after electricity and coal workers banned overtime and on December 13 he introduced a Three Day Week to conserve electricity.

Newspaper production was exempt so we found ourselves continuing to report on the increasingly grim economic news as well as on petty crime, golden weddings, planning rows, pub euchre leagues and other events in the life of Torbay. As for technology, among the ancient typewriters in the Herald Express office was a pre-war (First World War)Underwood.

Thirty-five years later it’s rather different. Along with estate agents, journalists appear to be among the first casualties of the economic downturn as cutbacks in advertising and falling circulations conspire with rising raw material and energy costs and technological change to attack newspaper revenues from all quarters.

Let’s hope communities don’t realise too late what they are losing when the media groups controlling their local newspapers cut back even further on journalists, district editions and local content.

Urban art is apparently one of the most fashionable options for people looking to avoid the increasingly bearish market in stocks and shares. Not so long ago, anyone sheltering under a Banksy was just trying to stay out of the rain on another wet Sunday in Stokes Croft.