Labour should have a single-minded focus on social housing

‘Build social housing for rent with an urgency to match the effort after the second world war.’ The town planner Patrick Abercrombie points out his scheme to rebuild Plymouth to the film-makers Jill Craigie and Laurie Freedman from the roof of St Andrew's church in 1946. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

John Harris is absolutely right (Labour is in a mess. Is there anything Starmer can do to turn things around? Our panel responds, 18 September).

The government should stop trying to do everything and concentrate on building social housing for rent with an urgency to match the effort after the second world war.

Forget meddling with the private market. Get good-quality factory-built housing up fast, so people can bring their kids up in secure rented homes.

Let that tell the story of what Labour government means. It will do the job better than a thousand vague slogans about GP appointments, school meals and nurseries. You can show pictures of houses.
Caroline Mozley
York

• “Imagine two or three Labour MPs with different takes, arguing things out at length on YouTube,” says Alan Finlayson (Is there anything Labour can do to save itself from disaster? Our panel responds – part two, 19 September). But why just imagine? Look at Roy Jenkins and Tony Benn slugging it out in 1975. As Finlayson says, confrontations like this “invite audiences to think for themselves and communicate an image of life beyond desiccated managerialism”. Today’s Labour should welcome such debates.
Ken Guy
Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

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