Thank you, Chair.

It’s so good to be back. Back at Conference, back in government and back here in Liverpool – this country’s second city – after Manchester, of course. Sorry Sadiq – the Prime Minister wrote that joke, so don’t blame me.

I want to start by saying a big thank you to everyone here. Your work got us into government. We wouldn’t be here without you. I certainly wouldn’t be here without you. The support received from so many people here over the last year has meant so much to me personally.

The labour movement is a family to me and that’s the thing about our movement, we’re here not just for ourselves, but here for each other. You’ve been there for me. And I’m here for you.

Conference, I will never apologise for being Labour. We are the party of working people. Our story is about graft and resilience, innovation and pride.

From the Tolpuddle Martyrs who resisted poverty wages, to the post-war Labour Government who rebuilt Britain and gave birth to our NHS, to the “white heat” generation of engineers and scientists who built an industrial future, and the last Labour government that created Sure Start and the minimum wage. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.

Our shared task now is to give our country hope again. Because my politics has always started with the belief that all people should be able to live a good life – and to live it well.

To have the control to shape their own lives for themselves.

It’s something I learnt in my time as a Unison union rep – when I stood side-by-side with my friends and colleagues, fighting together to make things better and now we must use that same hunger to get things done, to make a real difference that people can see and feel – not just tomorrow but today.

I was told that it was impossible to bring forward our Employment Rights Bill within our first hundred days and what did we do, Conference? We passed the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. And yes, we introduced it in our first hundred days.

It was the same with our Renters’ Rights Act – after years of empty promises, delivering more for 11 million renters in fourteen months than the Tories managed in fourteen years. We showed a government with our Labour values and political strength can and will get things done.

We overhauled planning rules to get the homes and infrastructure we need built. We rebalanced council funding on the basis of need. We put record funding into building social and council homes. We empowered communities to buy and own their local pubs, clubs and cafes and we supported Mayors to raise their own funds to invest in their own people and places.

That is why devolution matters. It is why we are giving local leaders more control. Rewiring the state – the Labour way. Backing good growth that sees us all benefit from investment, jobs and money in our pockets. By shifting power out of Whitehall and giving communities with skin in the game the tools to shape their own future.

But Conference, we are only just getting started. And now, two years in, we must be more impatient than ever to get on.

This is why in the past few weeks the Prime Minister and I promised a route off the streets to every rough sleeper this Christmas. We funded new council housing and pledged new powers to get unsafe buildings fixed – recovering every penny from those who should be footing the bill.

I want to take this opportunity Conference, to thank my brilliant ministerial team – Matt, Flo, Jim, Sally, Sharon and Judith. We’ve been busy!

And let’s remember on everything we have done for workers’ rights, for renters’ rights, Nigel Farage and Reform fought us every step of the way. But they’ve been exposed, haven’t they?

Farage isn’t standing up to vested interests. He’s falling at their feet. Does anyone really think that Farage’s crypto billionaire sugar daddies are handing him millions, because he’s standing up for the working people of Britain? Give me a break.

If he’ll sing you happy birthday for seventy quid, just imagine what he’d do for seventy million. He’s shown whose side on.

I know it’s our job to show you that we are on yours because people want to see a Labour government that is on their side. But they also want us to get on with fixing the problems they face.

This is what drives me and why I am standing up here in front of you today. It is why this week we launched a new fund to breathe life back into our high streets. Our town centres should be thriving, the heart of a place where people enjoy a family day out or an evening with their mates – with cafes, shops and pubs open for business, and jobs for local people too. This is what Labour is building.

Not through quick fixes that fail, like the hanging baskets and lick of paint the Tories offered. But by giving communities and local leaders with real skin in the game the funding they need to build their own futures. Imagine the building in your town, once shuttered and boarded, now reopened and renewed, not just serving local people but run and owned by them for their benefit. A symbol that there is hope, again.

It’s why Co-operatives are central to this vision, and why we are supporting Mayors to set up more enterprises owned and run by their staff, customers and communities – their success driven and shared by local people. We pledged in our Manifesto to back our sister movement, and together we will keep that promise because in the face of adversity, we are stronger together. It won’t be easy – but nothing worth doing ever is.

Just on Friday I saw the difference social rented homes make. In my own constituency, where I visited a new development with 35 new social homes. I met a man who told me how much getting this home has changed his life. A home gave him hope and hearing that from him gave me hope. – and that’s what keeps me going.

Because in modern Britain it’s just not right – it’s not acceptable to me – that 180,000 children are growing up in temporary accommodation. They are forced to do their homework sat on the edge of a bed in a hostel – whilst at the same time more than 300,000 homes are empty long-term.

So, for those homes that sit idle and unused, we will make it easier for councils to bring these homes back into use for desperate families in need – sweeping away Tory barriers that hampered our local leaders from taking action.

This is why I am also announcing more powers for local leaders to tackle homelessness and ensure that they have the homes their communities need. Our councils will now be able to refer local homeless households to other social housing providers to reduce reliance on temporary accommodation. And we will stop social homes from being lost when providers sell them by making it easier for councils to buy. At the same time, we will introduce a new duty on public services to work together to provide that wraparound support to prevent homelessness, before families reach crisis point.

When we say we stand for more public control of housing this is what we mean. Giving power to those who know their areas and local people best, and who are ultimately accountable when families are left without a secure home because there’s nothing like having a home of your own. The sense of safety and security that set of keys brings.

This is why the Prime Minister and I announced how we will help those young people who don’t have the bank of mum and dad to get on. will help the young families who work hard but find their own home out of reach – providing help with a deposit, supporting working people, and building the homes we need.

But Conference, I have bit of unfinished business – confronting the scandal faced by millions of leaseholders who have found their dream of homeownership turn into a nightmare. Whilst the Tories sat back and refused to tackle this problem, this Labour Government has shown whose side it is on. We are ending the injustice of fleecehold, abolishing sickening threats of people’s homes being snatched away by their landlord for the slightest breach – and we’re finally dealing with ground rents.

Despite owning their own home, some leaseholders are forking out hundreds, and sometimes thousands of pounds each year to unaccountable investors for absolutely nothing in return.

That is why we are calling time on this, by capping, then scrapping ground rents – putting power and money back in people’s hands.

But ground rents are not the only rip off. I’ve heard of leaseholders being charged £250 for permission to own a pet, £400 for permission to change their own front door, and than another £60 fee to put a doorbell on that door – just for the basic right to do what you want in your own home. Yet another example of how people feel powerless. Powerless against the vested interests that only take, while giving nothing back in return – which is why we will also cap outrageous administration and permission fees for leaseholders. I am taking every action to empower people in their own homes.

But it is not just some freeholders that can exploit leaseholders and tenants. Estate agents, letting agents and property management agents can too. A sector with many decent businesses, of course – but they are undermined and undercut by far too many cowboys, crooks and con artists. And home owners, renters and leaseholders pay the price through hidden fees and traps.

People who should be excited about buying a home are tricked into using overpriced in-house services. Unqualified, unlicensed and unregulated agents are taking thousands from their clients – and mishandling their money with no transparency or accountability, vultures can take advantage.

When I was a backbencher, I said this was a problem I wished I’d had the chance to tackle and urged the government to act. Now, under this Prime Minister, I’m proud to do so myself. Conference, we will legislate for independent regulation to rein these cowboys in. They will be required to follow the rules and if they don’t – their licences will be taken away. Public control, in the public interest – no matter what vested interests stand in our way.

Conference, this week we have shown how we can build on the success of Labour’s past and look forward to our future. A plan to turn Britain around by empowering our communities, ensuring public investment creates public value, not private extraction, giving breathing space to families facing hard times and giving elected local leaders the tools to fix local problems.

It means ensuring growth is not something people just read about – it is something they feel in their lives, every day: Better jobs, better wages, better public services and better high streets.

We are showing that we can get things done and we are showing that we can deliver. But what is most important is why we do it, and who we do it for. Where we are going, our purpose and our values.

Because we are proud of our country. We are on the side of the people. And we are looking to the future.

So together, let’s bring back hope.

Thank you.