Political Opinion: Why I am leading a debate on neighbourhoods in Parliament

When we enter Parliament, we understand that it is a huge responsibility. Elected for five years, we face a monumental task: trying to improve lives, for the people and places we represent, and all across the country. This is a vital mission, an even more vital for those who experience life at the fringes of our democracy, to those suffering from a lack of housing, education, work, or healthcare.

That is why I called for, and am now leading, a debate on neighbourhoods and their renewal in Westminster Hall.

This will be hard to discuss, uncomfortable to hear, and unpleasant to dissect, but that is exactly why we have to have these conversations. I won’t mince my words or beat around the bush. Our neighbourhood, and not just those in Wolverhampton, New Invention and Short Heath, but those around the whole country, have been left behind. They’ve been left to decline.

Community has lost its meaning, children and young people have nowhere to go, and the adults can’t access jobs.

This should never have happened. It cannot continue. It must never happen again.

That is exactly why I am calling for a project of national renewal for our neighbourhoods, designed to work with communities, to rebuild from the ground up, and to restore hope and dignity back to our places.

That must be the great mission of our Government.

Why am I raising the issues of Neighbourhoods in Westminster Hall?

Westminster Hall debates are special kind of debate. They’re not for Government business, they’re not for the whips, and they’re not for hearing the national pictures. These debates are about real stories from real places, where MPs from all parties are able to come together, raising the issues that affect their constituencies and residents the most. And when I think about Wolverhampton, or Short Heath, or New Invention, or when I think wider to the West Midlands, neighbourhoods are exactly what I think about.

Why? I grew up in Wolverhampton. I lived on the Ashmore. I started my own family in Park Village, the very kind of neighbourhoods that will be discussed in this debate. I’ve seen the changes that our neighbourhoods have faced, and despite their challenges, I’ve seen what makes them work. They’re still great places to live, but they could be so much more. I remember going to my local youth club as a child, and seeing the adults go to the community centre. I remember popping down to the local butchers and greengrocers. I remember people living in affordable homes, and this community being actively focussed helping out neighbours, family and friends.

But after 14 years of austerity, and more before that of managed decline, the neighbourhoods that I have known, that many of us have been lucky to know, have changed. Housing became unaffordable for normal working people, family-owned shops have been replaced with chains, the youth groups went, and the jobs moved further away.

Just take those youth services. Since 2010, funding for these essential building blocks of community have been slashed by 73%. In Wolverhampton that means that just here, in our small place, 30 local youth centres have gone. 30 places to meet and learn. 30 places to play and communicate. Gone.

That wasn’t fate, or an accident. That was a set of political choices made by a previous government.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Things can be so different. Things must be so different.

How do we know this will work?

We aren’t reinventing the wheel here. I am not asking for a debate on an unrealistic ask or presenting a pipe dream. This doesn’t need piles of money and years of planning. This is a debate talking about simple changes, real people, and quick wins to restore trust and dignity to our communities, not just in Wolverhampton, but right across this country.

In asking for a debate about neighbourhood renewal, I am asking for it because we know it can work, because it has worked before, and, in fact it works now, with amazing bright sparks all around the country. The nation deserves these sparks of genius to spread across the country, catching on in as many places as possible.

I’ve been honoured and inspired to work with ICON, the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, along with Baroness Armstrong, as they work on their ‘mission critical neighbourhoods’ and they showed me their work on the scale of the challenges which neighbourhoods are facing.

That’s why I invited them to The Scotlands Estate, in Fallings Park Ward in Wolverhampton. We visited the Big Venture Centre, an inspiring community focussed project, that is changing people’s lives every single day. From the ‘Pink Ladies’ who volunteer there, to the Community Chefs who cook up a storm, to the Community Shop keeping people fed, this is what every neighbourhood deserves.

This debate isn’t just about buildings, although they are important. The changes we need aren’t just flashy projects or new homes. This debate will highlight the huge importance of cultural capital and social infrastructure - social connections. We can build homes anywhere, building a community - a place of shared values - is different.

We’ve seen it at The Hive in Walsall, the Hub on Ashmore, Low Hill Community Centre or the Big Venture on the Scotlands. Real people make real change. That is exactly who we need to support.

This is about changing Government, brining back mission-led policy as an act of service. This is about restoring people’s chances to participate in Government, making it something which is ‘done with’ them, rather than ‘to them’. This is about doing things together, and truly taking back control to our communities.

This is where we can take the chance to challenge Government: to adapt, to think, and do what needs to be done. This is where we can invest in what neighbourhoods know they need, rather than what someone in Whitehall thinks they want. That is the change we can make.

This debate is an opportunity that MPs in Westminster, across political parties can speak openly and frankly about the experiences of the communities that we represent, broadcasting that knowledge loud and clear, so that the Government can hear.

This isn’t just for us, this is for the future.

Let’s back people. Let’s back places. Let’s rebuild our Neighbourhoods. Together.