Two months in and momentum is building with the Homes at the Heart campaign – so what happens now?

The best thing about working on a campaign is when you can start to feel the energy building behind the issue you feel so passionately about. Two months into #HomesAtTheHeart, the drive among supporters to let the government know how crucial good social housing is to the country’s recovery from coronavirus is palpable. Thank you to everyone who has been with us making a song and dance!

And what a song and dance it’s been. So far over 5,000 #HomesAtTheHeart tweets and retweets have been sent pushing the campaign into the timelines of 5.6 million people. 

We’ve already had great political engagement so far with MPs, Assembly Members, Mayors and councillors backing our calls, including three blogs from Conservative MPs and mentions of the campaign in Parliament.

And our broad range of supporters have continued to highlight the ways in which social housing benefits the economy and society. This includes excellent content from NatWest, who announced £3bn of investment in social housing in The Times, Greater Manchester Chambers of Commerce, talking about how investing in social housing makes sense for businesses in the North West, and CPRE, highlighting the struggles of rural communities that don’t have enough genuinely affordable housing.

And there is so much more to come.

We have four more weeks of action ahead of us:

• Homes at the heart of living well (24-28 August)
• Homes at the heart of a greener country (7-11 September)
• Homes at the heart of settled futures (21-25 September)
• Homes at the heart of prosperous communities (28 September - 2 October)

Through these weeks we will talk about social housing that comes with support for people to live well, the role of social housing in tackling climate change, the need for social housing to help end homelessness, and the importance of social housing at the centre of communities that are thriving. 

The campaign partners – National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, Crisis, National Federation of ALMOs and Association of Retain Council Housing – will share stories, highlight research and spread the message that a once-in-a-generation investment in social housing could help get our country back on track and help people to live their best lives.

But if we want all political parties to really feel the full strength of #HomesAtTheHeart and truly recognise the risk of not prioritising social housing, then we need every single one of you to amplify the message.

Whether you’re a big or small housing association, in a city or in the country, and no matter what kind of services you provide, we need you to keep shouting about what you do. The #HomesAtTheHeart toolkit provides ways for you to do this no matter how much time or resource you have, with support for you to

• Help build political support
• Make a local media splash
• Show support on social media

We need to put #HomesAtTheHeart of the nation’s recovery. And we need you and your stories at the heart of our campaign.