Birmingham Council owns more than 4,000 empty garages

Many of these buildings could be replaced with new homes. New rules are needed to end this scandal.

Paul Mercer: Tackling homelessness from the ground up

The cost of putting individuals and families into temporary accommodation is significant. Finding secure accommodation is imperative.

Robert Halfon: For years, I’ve urged that the Conservatives become a Workers Party. Now it is one.

As the Prime Minister said, many people have lent us their vote, and they won’t be so generous next time if we get it wrong.

David Davis: How to keep the new working class voters we won last Thursday – and win even more

In this new political battle, the greatest tension will not be left v right or even fiscal
doves v economic hawks.   It will be a battle between creativity and convention.

Hundreds of “tenants’ halls” sit empty on council estates. They could be rebuilt to provide new homes.

Some local authorities don’t even keep a record of whether the buildings are in use.

Mark Henderson: The Decent Homes Standard is failing households

Can we honestly say that a house with damp is acceptable? Or a home with poor insulation, when it costs an extra £650 per year to heat?

Ryan Bourne: To help grow prosperity, let’s focus on people and not places – such as towns

Bowman and Westlake’s policy ideas are perfectly compatible with this end, but pitching them as a city and town agenda risks creating a false impression.

Andy Street: The spending round must be about generating money as well as allocating it

The UK needs a state-of-the-art ‘gigafactory’, and it should be built here in the West Midlands alongside our established automotive cluster.

Rosalind Beck: The Government’s war on landlords will only make the housing crisis worse for the lowest-paid.

There needs to be the ability to evict when that is justified. Undue delay and obstruction and the rental market will shrink.

Bob Seely: Scrap the automatic Right to Buy. And nine other ideas to make housing sustainable.

The rest of our economy is shifting to greater sustainability. The system to provide places to live should do the same.

Andrew Wood: We need clear rules to ensure fairness by councils providing property for faith groups

A stricter separation between church and state at local level would safeguard against political patronage.

Gary Porter: Self-build and custom build will become increasingly important to delivering the new homes we need

In the UK, we have lost the capacity for individuals to provide or commission homes individually tailored to their needs.

Robert Halfon: Now is the time for Common Market 2.0, and an EFTA-type plan for Brexit

Plus: We must be the Party for social housing as well as home ownership. And: why don’t we trumpet our history of social reform?

Murad Gassanly: Why I left the Labour Party

The Conservatives are the natural political home for those who value national identity and are open to the world.

Interview: Lord Bird says homelessness is not just for Christmas, and the death penalty might deter knife crime

The founder of The Big Issue expresses his aversion to liberalism, and his disappointment with the middle class.