You don’t expect to see a picture of Margaret Thatcher on the wall when you walk into the office of the European commissioner for housing, given Dan Jorgensen is a Danish social democrat.

The photo shows the former right-wing UK prime minister meeting Denmark’s first EU commissioner, Finn Olav Gundelach, after the two countries joined the union in the 1970s. The chic green couch the pair are sitting on in the photo is still in the Berlaymont, where the EU’s executive body is based, all these years later.

“She seems to be admired for how strong she was, probably I don’t agree with that many of her policies,” Jorgensen says, after drawing attention to the photo of Thatcher.

From Athens to Dublin, national governments are struggling to reverse a chronic shortage of housing supply, that has left many unable to buy a home and paying higher and higher rents in the meantime.

The European Commission has no real powers - known as competences - to legislate in the area of housing, so it was not a topic that featured in the discussions of those working inside the EU lawmaking machine.

That has changed in the last year. Finding ways to help governments address a continent-wide housing crisis is suddenly high on the agenda of commission president Ursula von der Leyen and MEPs in the European Parliament.

European Commissioner for Energy and Housin