‘Building trust’

Britain is bursting with potential. Villages, towns and cities across the country are full of people with ideas and the energy needed to drive change in their place. Yet this has been stifled by a politics that hoards power at the centre and denies people the power and control to shape their own destinies. 

To deliver the scale and pace of change we need, we must start by trusting our communities. In an era of misinformation and political uncertainty, people’s lived experience matters. Communities understand the realities of their neighbourhoods – where investment is needed, what is holding people back and what opportunities exist. Our communities are rich with ambition and talent, and they must be put at the centre of the solutions to the problems we face as a country.

This is particularly true for one of the most pressing crises we face – housing. The simple truth is that for decades we have not built the number of homes that we need as a country. As demand has outstripped supply, prices have soared.

READ MORE: ‘The Labour mission: hope, homes and opportunity for all’

Those who bought homes decades ago have benefited from extraordinary increases in house prices, accumulating wealth simply through ownership. In 1985, the average home in the UK cost around £30,000. Today, that home would be worth roughly £270,000 – an increase of around 800 per cent.

In my constituency of Peckham, the transformation has been even more dramatic, with average property values rising from around £70,000 to around £700,000. But not everyone has benefited from this boom. As prices have risen, more and more people have been locked out of homeownership.

A teacher or nurse could once realistically buy a home in Peckham on an ordinary salary. Today, you need two high incomes, a large deposit and – increasingly – family wealth to enter the housing market. The transfer of wealth between generations has become one of the defining economic shifts of our time. Those who have access to family assets can often get on the ladder; those who do not face a lifetime of renting and insecurity.This is not unique to Britain. Similar trends exist across Europe and the United States. But the consequences are profound: housing is no longer simply about shelter. It has become the primary mechanism through which wealth is accumulated and passed down.

A decent, secure home is out of reach for many people. Housing insecurity affects far more than household finances; it shapes life chances, family stability, health and the ability to plan for the future. Without tackling housing inequality, broader economic inequality will remain entrenched.

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Greater devolution provides a route to addressing this. Local leaders should have the powers and resources to shape housing markets according to local need and to build the homes that their communities need. That means building more affordable and social housing, buying homes that are vacant or not needed for social housing, regenerating unused land and buildings and ensuring development benefits the people who already live in those communities. Critically, it means regional and local governments working in partnership with housing associations, SME builders and co-operative developers to not just boost supply but to build communities and make places that people want to live in.

If we fail to grasp this opportunity, we risk deepening the conditions that have driven political frustration and disengagement. The challenge ahead is urgent. We must not retreat into old arguments or centralised solutions. We must trust communities, devolve power and drive the change that people up and down the country are desperate to see.

That is how we rebuild trust: not by asking people to wait, but by giving them the power to shape the future.

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