Community and connection at the heart of Labour conference

One of the most striking sections of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s speech this week at the Labour Party Conference was his pushing back on the idea that Britain is ‘broken’. But what was even more interesting than his decision to fight this framing was how he chose to do it - by pointing to individuals in the front row of the audience who were there by virtue of their community activism - delivering food parcels, recycling school uniforms, rebuilding the library that was burnt down in last year’s riots.

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It was a theme that ran through a huge number of fringe events and speeches at the Labour Conference - the hope and positivity that lies in individual communities and local leaders, and the stark contrast this presents to the national media narrative of doom and gloom.

This theme is of course the beating heart of the Warm Welcome Campaign, our ‘Chain of Hope’ linking more than 5,400 community spaces all across the UK. As I spoke to people in Liverpool, there was a great level of recognition for Warm Welcome, and more importantly for the incredible potential of community spaces and infrastructure to renew the fabric of our society and tackle our biggest issues. From social cohesion to neighbourhood health to supporting young people to getting people back into work - all policy roads seem to lead back to social infrastructure and community spaces.

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And what was most encouraging was seeing the government put its money where its mouth is with the £5bn Pride in Place Programme, giving 250 of the most deprived communities the resource and power to develop and build their collective assets, including physical spaces for people to connect and belong. This is an enormous opportunity in a context in which so many communities have seen the erosion of these vital places over the previous years and decades.

After connecting at Conference with ministers and many like-minded organisations and leaders, there is much to follow up on for Warm Welcome to offer our support in helping the Pride in Place Programme live up to its full potential, and to unlock the power of communities to renew the country we all love and call home.