Anyone who has ever been homeless or slept in a cold, grotty bedsit knows having a roof over your head is one of the basic human rights.

Millions of people in this country, thousands of them in Sussex, are suffering from grotty housing yet it has hardly featured as an issue in next week's General Election.

There are two reasons for this. One is that people at the bottom of the heap seldom have much of a voice and many may not have bothered to register so that they can vote. The other is that top politicians usually live in some style and find it hard to imagine the privations of poor housing.

John Prescott, who is ultimately responsible for housing, has at least two homes as well as two Jags. He is not alone in this. A former Tory housing minister is supposed to have said: "Of course I'm well fitted to do this job, having several lovely homes of my own."

It's perhaps an indication of the priority given to housing by the Government that it is a small part of Mr Prescott's extremely large department which also covers environment, transport and the regions. The current housing minister, Nick Raynsford, is one of the few to have an expert knowledge of his job but he has been hampered by lack of cash and I fancy not one voter in 100 could name him.

I am fortunate enough to be one of the majority of Britons who own their homes. It is hardly large or luxurious but it is warm and watertight. But I shall never forget the time I lived in a ghastly bedsit.

The rent of £6.50 a week, shared with a mate, does not sound much now but it was a lot of money in 1963 when I was earning only £7 a week. The room was a long way from the nearest bath and loo in the house, which was shared with several others.

It was dirty and mice used to scamper across the floor, especially at night. But most of all, in the coldest winter of the century, it was freezing and I could not afford to pay the electricity charges.

I remember inserting pennies into the meter slot to get a few minutes' heat, cupping my hands over the electric fire, and then seeing how long I could wait before I put in another coin. It sounds pathetic but it was important to me. Being cold and miserable in a squalid bedsit was the dominant feature of my life.

Although standards have improved since then, even in the bedsit belt, there are still thousands of people in Brighton and Hove who live in disgusting conditions and hundreds who have no homes at all. I managed to get my foot on to the housing ladder but soaring prices mean many are being denied this chance.

Councils like Brighton and Hove are doing their best but they need greater help from whichever party forms a government next week. It's vital that thousands more affordable homes are built in the areas of greatest demand. In counties such as Sussex, where land is scarce, there is a case for imposing a moratorium on building anything new but social housing.

Increasing prosperity in most parts of the South-East will probably lead to continued increases in housing costs, both for buying and renting, which will put pressure on the many low-income households. It is probably neither possible nor desirable to regulate house costs but a better system of subsidy is needed to help those who cannot afford market prices.

Much tougher measures are also needed to ensure that while private landlords get a reasonable return on their investments, they also have to offer flats and bedsitters which are fit for human habitation.

It ought to be high on the political agenda. But I fear that whoever has the keys to that most desirable of all town houses, 10 Downing Street, next week will get there without any commitment at all for change.