It is time to prioritise homes, justice and women’s rights and safety

By far the biggest challenge facing us is the need to deliver more homes. Those of us lucky enough to have a home to call our own should not be standing in the way of anyone else who wishes to realise that ambition. And when a market is broken government should intervene. We shouldn’t be shy about building new council homes. They can be allocated by fixed term tenancies and subject to right to buy.

I would also like to see a higher emphasis on prison reform. There are too many people in our prisons who cannot read or write. Too many who have been through the care system. Those people have been failed by the state. Our criminal justice system should try harder to correct that failure so that prisons are home to the criminal rather than the vulnerable.

And good sense please on women’s rights. The desire to be inclusive is seeing a casual diminution of women’s rights to the extent that we have become cervix-havers; people who get pregnant and worst of all people without prostates. We can be supportive of trans rights while still ensuring that male sex offenders are not housed in women’s prisons and women can continue to have their own sporting competitions. Women have come a long way in achieving equality with men; protecting our rights requires vigilance.

Society is now more aware of violence against women and girls following the tragic case of Sarah Everard. It has been a revelation to many men that so many of their wives, sisters, daughters and friends have shared their experiences of aggressive sexual behaviour. It is just too normal. We need a stronger focus on empowering girls and encouraging respect. If we make low-level sexual banter and casual harassment as unacceptable as drink-driving perhaps the more violent acts of sexual violence will become more shocking and less prevalent.

As Conservatives we know that the state does fail. In fact, that is the real difference between us and the Labour Party. We know that the state is not infallible. We know that problems cannot be solved simply by throwing taxpayers’ money at them. We should not be shy about saying so. We believe that people should be able to keep more of what they earn. We shouldn’t measure success by how much we spend. Let’s focus our attention on outcomes achieved rather than pounds spent.