Good morning everyone,

It’s great to be here in Nottingham and a real honour to be speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister, this Government, and my party here. As an almost-local Member of Parliament, I have to give you a quick East Midlands history lesson!

Here we’re literally just over the road from the site of the first Boots Pharmacy which opened its doors in 1849. It’s not there anymore, sadly. Back in the 1800s, the area wasn’t the clean, fresh, welcoming place.

Living in the wrong kind of house or the wrong kind of place can close off avenues and opportunities, and of course, can affect your life chances.

A child who can’t find a quiet place to study may struggle to make progress at school. An adult who is unable to relocate may miss out on a life-changing promotion at work.

It is why this government is launching a complete overhaul and revolution of social housing and how people acquire their first homes.

It will look at the overall quality of social homes, many of which are now beginning to show their age.

It will cover service management; the way social homes and their tenants are taken care of.

It will look at the rights of tenants and show how their voices can be better heard.

And it will cover what can be done to ensure their complaints are taken seriously and dealt with properly, and make sure tenants have clear, timely avenues to seek redress when things do go wrong.

If a resident reports a crack in the wall that you can fit your hand in, big enough to use as a bookshelf, it shouldn’t just be patched up and ignored.

The reason it’s there and the impact it could have the need to be properly investigated.

Problems shouldn’t just be fixed, they should be learned from.

These are the kind of issues the government's policy will solve.

But that’s not all. It will also look at wider issues of place, community, and the local economy such as the recent bill to encourage pedestrianisation.

How can social landlords help to create places that people really want to live in, places where roses can grow?

What role can social housing policy play in building safe and integrated communities, where people from different backgrounds get along no matter what type of housing they live in?

How do we maximise the benefits for social housing for the local, regional and national economy as part of our Industrial Strategy? What more can we do to help tackle homelessness? What support is needed for leaseholders who have a social landlord? What can be done to tackle illegal subletting, not just chasing down offenders but dealing with the cause of the problem in the first place?

And, at the heart of it all, how can you, me, local government and others work together to get more of the right homes built in the right places?

As you can tell – I hope! – I’m talking about a substantial body of work. It’s these policy reforms such as Rent to Buy, Right to Buy, Help to Buy and a focus on producing more housing to replace our ageing overcrowded and reducing the stock of council housing.

This policy I hope, will revolutionise the debate on the housing crisis and social housing an integration and change the debate for the future.

So it’s not something we’re going to rush.

Yes, I do want to see it all published and implemented as soon as possible but what matters most is getting it right and continuing the Prime Minister's One Nation vision.

People at home listening to this speech own homes, you manage homes and of course, you build homes as this nation builds tens of thousands of them every year.

The housing market in this country has been crippled by a long-term failure to understand the demands of working people by the left.

By next year this nation is set to reach 90,000 new homes a year, an incredible achievement and one that makes a real difference to the lives of countless people. So thank you again.

The associations, charities, trusts, co-operatives, societies and so on that help us build so many of them have been really welcoming of the government's plans.

These charities are a real example of the civil society in action. The third sector stepping up and churning out houses. We wouldn't have numbers like I mentioned earlier, numbers that rival the likes of Barrett and Bellway, without these organisations being run reliably and openly like a serious business.

Right now, the Prime Minister has entrusted me to make long-term decisions to improve the housing situation in this country that hasn’t been seen since Harold Macmillan. That’s why I’ve been working with our great Prime Minister DrCaeserMD and the rest of the government to achieve the great changes that will win us a third term.

Right to Buy - it’s a policy that has always been popular with tenants. I know the same is not necessarily true of all the housing associations. I think it’s a great scheme and working with others in my party it’s being restored. It helps people get on the housing ladder and, by releasing funds, it helps deliver the next generation of homes for affordable rent.

There are issues that need looking at, I accept that, and we have made reforms to fix them. This Government has listened to housing associations and made changes. I thank the National Housing Federation and all of you for your open, honest, and constructive feedback on Right to Buy. That is leading to this great leap forward - into a truly united fair Conservative vision of this great nation.

As many of you will have seen, at the Department for Communities and Local Government at Marsham Street there’s a wall with official portraits of everyone who has led the department or its predecessors. They go all the way back to Hugh Dalton, in 1950. Some of the pictures are more flattering than others.

Richard Crossman, he looks like he’s appearing in an Alfred Hitchcock film. Chris Patten seems to have been surprised by a photographer while relaxing in his local library. And John Prescott’s eyes… they kind of follow you wherever you walk… I know some civil servants find that a little bit creepy when they’re alone in the office late at night! But the one that always catches my eye is Harold Macmillan.

When Winston Churchill appointed Macmillan as Housing Minister in 1951, he gave him one very simple instruction: “build houses for the people”. And the presence of his photograph on the wall at DCLG is a daily reminder of the spectacular fashion in which he did just that.

I’m proud of my government’s record on council housing. But Macmillan was on a whole other level: a level the Prime Minister expects me to match.

While he was housing minister, Britain built 300,000 houses a year, the vast majority what today we would call social homes. Cramped, dense, inner-city slums were replaced with spacious, high-quality homes in the suburbs. Millions of people were given their first experience of indoor plumbing, of front and rear gardens.

Never mind living somewhere a rose could grow – the planners behind new towns boasted of homes where a tree could be seen from every window. Super Mac built houses for the people and the people loved them. Living in social housing carried no stigma, no shame - quite the opposite, in fact. For many, it was seen the gold standard for accommodation. Not a final safety net for the desperate and destitute, but something you could genuinely aspire to, housing you would actively choose to live in.

But over time, that all changed. Social housing stock became increasingly neglected, as did the people who lived in it. It won’t be a green socialist government to remedy the current situation and bring back the living standards we had under Macmillan.

It will be a Conservative one that will clear the modern slums and designated housing and replace them with modern places fit for a family to raise their children. The establishment became detached, aloof, focused its attention elsewhere. And the tragic events of 14 June showed exactly where that attitude can lead.

That’s why, when I say we must do everything possible to prevent a repeat of Grenfell, I’m not just talking about the cladding or the stairways or the sprinklers.

We need to shift the whole conversation about social housing, reframe the whole debate. We need to return to the time, not so very long ago when social housing was valued. Something we could all be proud of whether we lived in it or not.

I’m proud to stand here today and say that you have a team of ministers who are totally committed to the cause.

I’m delighted to say I have a Prime Minister who is too.

Because we both recognise that if we’re going to make this a country that works for everyone, we need housing that works for everyone. And that’s true regardless of whether you’re an owner-occupier, a private rental tenant, or living in social housing.

Achieving this will not be simple or straightforward but if any government has the will to make this change, it is this Government.

Thank you.