We Deserve Homes That Build Community, Not Just Units That Fill Space

A home is not four walls.

It is safety.

It is stability.

It is the space where life happens.

And right now, too many people have none of that.

Thirteen years of Conservative government deepened the housing crisis Margaret Thatcher helped create. The result? Towns, cities and villages turned into dormitories. Homes that cost too much and give back too little. Streets where the lights are on, but nothing is open. Communities where shops have closed, pubs are gone, and no one builds for the people already living there.

What was once a neighbourhood becomes a grid of flats no local family can afford. What was once a village becomes a name on a developer’s masterplan.

This is not just bad planning. It is bad politics.

Permitted development was handed over to developers. Community assets were sold off. Affordability became a slogan. And sustainability became an afterthought.

And people are feeling it. Shelter recently reported that more than half of private renters have seen their rent rise in the past year. Half are now just one paycheque away from losing their home. Millions have had to cut back on food, heating or essentials just to make rent. This is not stable. It is not sustainable. And it is not acceptable.

The new government has announced steps to address this. Plans to build 1.5 million homes. A stronger focus on brownfield development. The biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. Renters' rights back on the agenda.

Many will welcome those steps. What matters is how they land, and whether they reach the people and places most affected.

National policy alone will not fix what has been allowed to break. Local leadership still matters.

The fight for decent housing happens conversation by conversation. Street by street. Community by community.

And it has to start with a different idea. Housing is not enough.

We do not just need more units. We need homes. Homes mean more than bricks. They mean people. Places to gather, to belong, to build a life. Homes that are stitched into the wider fabric of community, not tacked onto the edge.

That means putting communities at the heart of how we plan and build. Not consulted as an afterthought. Trusted as co-creators from the beginning. Because if a place is going to last, it has to be loved by the people who live in it.

That is why I have long championed community-led housing. Because communities are not a barrier to progress. They are how progress lasts. They know their own needs. They understand the patterns of local life. They carry the memory of place and the vision for what it could be.

We need developments that do not just fill a quota but deepen connection. That prioritise local infrastructure. That are rooted in people’s lived experience. That offer not just shelter but the possibility of shared life.

This means investment. It means reform. And it means leadership that sees homes as part of a larger story — one that communities help write.

I grew up in a small town. I know what gives these places heart. And I know how easy it is to lose that.

That is why I will keep fighting for the right homes in the right places. For plans shaped with, not just around, the people they affect. For neighbourhoods that grow with care, and housing that helps us live well, not just get by.

Because homes are not just built with bricks.

They are built with belonging.

And community is not an amenity.

It is the foundation.