(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

I’ve just come back from the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham and aside from the usual Boris Johnson side show, what struck me was that the big debates were not in the main hall, but outside it.

And they were debates on how to make a different, better version of Britain.

The next few months will be a turning point that will shape this country’s future. Whatever happens on Brexit, it has to go hand in hand with a guarantee of more opportunity for people. I believe lack of opportunity lay behind both the 2016 referendum and the 2017 general election results.



It feels like all we talk about right now is Brexit, but in the Conservative Party fringe events in Birmingham, there were new ideas, new solutions on the table. A real recognition that Britain needs to start fixing our social mobility emergency now: not for the next generation tomorrow but for this one today.


Having a home is at the heart of that. After I got my first job, my next step was having my own home. Independence. Today, that would be a pipe dream for me.

There are currently almost 15 million people renting in our country. You might be one of them. Most of us have rented at some point in our lives – I certainly have.

With Lord Bird of the Big Issue, I’m taking legislation (officially named the Creditworthiness Assessment Bill) through Parliament. With it we want to help renters, who are overwhelmingly young people or those on lower incomes.

It will mean their regular rent payments could help build up their credit history just as they would if they were regular mortgage payments. And with a better credit history, renters will be able to access more affordable credit – not only for a future mortgage but also for the kind of credit we all use every day, to get a mobile phone or a new washing machine, for example.

(Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Our Bill won’t transform Britain, but it will help millions of people renting. It’s a start for renters and it will level the playing field with mortgage holders.

And there’s so much more to be done. I want Britain to be different. I want it to be a place where you have the same opportunities wherever and however you’re starting.

In government, I introduced 12 Opportunity Areas across Britain, from Blackpool to Norwich, where we could make the biggest difference on social mobility.

The Opportunity Areas had intensive support to develop teachers and improve schools that had fallen behind. But they also matched that effort by working in partnership with communities outside schools – for example, on early years provision, and careers advice.

There are loads more communities that could benefit – 12 Opportunity Areas should just be a start. Why not create at least 100 of them? And why not turbo-charge their impact by using the tax system to incentivise employers to create more jobs and careers?



I don’t think the Conservative Party has a future unless it can reshape how everyone in the country has access to opportunities and make that feel fair.

I don’t buy the Corbynista agenda – I saw it close up, growing up in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. I was surrounded by hard left Labour activists who put me off politics for a long time and their solutions never made sense to me.

But criticising isn’t enough. The Conservatives have got to show what a better, practical alternative looks like.

I went into politics because I wanted to improve things for young people growing up. No party has a monopoly on good intentions or ideas.

If we stopped arguing and found some common ground to address the issues that matter, I’m sure we’d get further faster. My party needs to bring some ideas to the table but based on what I heard last week, I think we can do just that.

And I don’t think you need to be hard left Labour to have a radical agenda – we can do it from the centre ground of British politics. We can give young people a choice, which is ultimately what a democracy is all about.

MORE: What I Rent

MORE: Landlord banned from renting after forcing tenants to live in his own filth

MORE: Hundreds of families are being made homeless for no reason