When you’re elected to Parliament, you’re full of ideas. After walking countless miles, knocking thousands of doors, and speaking to even more people, you know by heart the issues that your area is facing, and the barriers that stand in the way of your residents’ success. Any MP could reel these off without pausing for breath, but raising them in Parliament? That’s a different question all together.
But that is exactly why I knew I had to call for and lead a debate in Westminster Hall, calling for support for our disadvantaged neighbourhoods and communities. Because that’s what so many of our issues boil down to. Whether its lack of jobs, poor education, inadequate housing, or no access to healthcare, all of these things are to do with the breakdown of the relationships between people and place, and those are the foundations we need to fix.
Westminster Hall debates are really something special, as we bring together passionate MPs from the backbenches, to raise the issues that really do matter, and represent the best interests of our communities. I was thrilled to see the Hall packed, as we debated an issue that matters for Wolverhampton North East, just as it matters for all of those coastal and post-industrial communities facing long-term social and economic challenges across the country.
Let me be absolutely clear, I am fiercely proud of where I’m from. I’ve said it time and time again, and I’ll never stop. I’m a Wolverhampton Girl, and I’m an Ashmore Girl. I grew up in one of those neighbourhoods, on one of those estates that we had gathered in Westminster Hall to discuss. It’s a community that works hard, that helps each other out and takes pride in what it does, but it’s a community which has the odds stacked against it, day after day.
But these communities are something special. They’re resilient and brilliant. They’re jam-packed with untapped potential, which for too long Parliament has failed to recognise. They’re places full of people who desperately want to just get on in life, but are held back and burdened by insurmountable barriers, barriers of poverty, inequality, and lack of opportunities after decades of systemic underinvestment.
And it shows. Just 5% of adults in England believe the Government cares about “neighbourhoods like mine”. 18% of people in the UK find themselves living in absolute poverty after housing costs. In Wolverhampton North East, 31% of children live in absolute poverty. It’s easy to see why 70% of people think the Government cares about some areas more than others, as neighbourhoods soar through better connections, better jobs, and higher investment.
Every single life spent in poverty matter. Every single one of those percentages is far more than just a number, or just a statistic. They’re real people. If nothing is done, the Resolution Foundation fear that a further 1,500,000 people, including 400,000 will plunge into poverty. That means a real adult will go to work, skipping breakfast so that their child can eat. That’s a real family, stuck living in insecure housing. That’s a real teenager, languishing on a waiting list for mental health support. Each number if a real tragedy, it’s a opportunity lost, and it’s a future restricted.
I’d like to thank the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods for their work and research on the issue, and their unending support. Alongside councillors and the community, I welcomed Baroness Armstrong to The Scotlands in Wolverhampton. I got to show her the strength of community, the passion of volunteers and the difference that restoring the social fabric can do for communities. This is an area with huge levels of need, but a bigger level of pride, determination, and community spirit. Places like this are not just the insight, but the evidence we needed. And now we have it, what we need is action.
This debate must not be the end of the conversation we have about neighbourhoods; it must be the start. In this debate, I called for a £1Billion Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, helping us back strategic, long-term, and community led projects across the country. We need an end to fragmented, competitive pots that pit communities against each other, and an end to centralised decision-making which alienated communities.
We know it works. We need to trust them. We need to back them. And we need to invest in them.
Let us never let them down again.
Time to end the piecemeal funding of local projects that pit hard-pressed communities against each other
