What an interesting and exciting Commission this is. We’re drawing out what makes places great, how housing associations are contributing to them, and the lessons we can learn for the future, and it is a pleasure playing my part.

Central to our approach is engaging with residents, tenants, local community activists and local politicians. Hearing from them about what has worked well in their neighbourhoods and the challenges they face can be a humbling experience.

The concept of a roadshow travelling through the West Midlands and the North, like a housing and regeneration caravan, has much appeal. We know that as a sector we need to do more – that however good we are now, we need to do better. And just building more homes, however essential, just won’t touch the sides of the problem.

Some areas need much more than new build housing to help them prosper. These places need proper jobs, skills training, patient, long term capital investment and sometimes more radical solutions, such as clearance and remodelling. We know this at Aspire, as do many of our PlaceShapers colleagues, because this is what we do as our day job. Indeed, the Future Shape of the Sector Commission led by Lord Turnbull recognised this too.

So what do we hope to achieve from the Great Places Commission? To put it bluntly, these areas need regeneration investment. If all the available funds go to high-value areas, we are only storing up more problems for the future.

We risk perpetuating an imbalanced economy within an imbalanced country – where cities and communities are left behind to fend for themselves because, commercially, no one in their right mind would build or establish a business there. One where government and civic leaders are battling against a tide of homelessness, in-work poverty, economic deficit and challenges that only large-scale bold intervention will solve.

Sound depressing? Well that’s because it is. But it is not insurmountable. This Commission will help the sector find our voice to lobby for a better future for these communities. To recognise and support the important role housing associations play as anchor institutions in these areas, and to encourage the sector to step up to do more and do better every day to help people and communities flourish. What’s not to like?