Speaking at the Conservative party conference in Manchester yesterday, McVey seemed to suggest that architects are moving into a new age where they will be creating 3D buildings for the first time.

“Well, if we have this new way of doing it, 3D architects… 3D visionaries… doing it with it on a computer,” the housing minister said during a panel discussion with business minister Nadhim Zahawi and northern powerhouse minister Jake Berry.

McVey, who is the ninth housing minister in as many years, made the comment in relation to attracting young talent into the construction sector.

Unsurprisingly, the statement was met with derision on Twitter, with Financial Times architecture critic Edwin Heathcote asking how we had lived without 3D architecture for so long.

Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright added: “A thrilling day for Conservatives - architecture policies – not only ushering in a brave new dawn of ‘3D architects doing it on the computer’, but also a new ‘right to fight ugliness’ that will clearly solve everything.”

Numerous commenters also mocked the idea that McVey had discovered 3D architecture.

“Esther McVey, the housing minister, thinks making houses in 3D is a recent development,” said comedy writer James Felton.