"For so long it felt like our struggles didn’t matter to anyone with authority"

"For so long it felt like our struggles didn’t matter to anyone with authority"

Kacey, a community leader from Citizens Somerset, shares her experience on the importance of housing repairs to be part of the Government’s £13.2 billion Warm Homes Plan

My name is Kacey, and I’m a student at Richard Huish College. Recently, I stood in Parliament Square alongside around 70 community leaders, schoolchildren, and campaigners from Citizens UK. We all came with one message: that the Government’s £13.2 billion Warm Homes Plan must not only focus on energy-efficiency upgrades but also include the basic repairs families need every day. This is what we call a Fix It First approach because homes can’t be made warm and efficient if they aren’t safe, dry, or structurally sound to begin with.

I shared my own experience of living in social housing where repairs were delayed or ignored. I described how unsafe conditions can become when essential work isn’t done, and how this affects a family’s health, safety, and stability. Speaking publicly about something so personal wasn’t easy. It felt vulnerable to let MPs and strangers into the reality of our home life, but it also felt empowering. For the first time, it felt like people with real influence were actually listening. It made me feel seen, and it reminded me that telling difficult truths can be a powerful tool for change.

My story was one part of a wider action. Children came dressed as builders, and two school choirs sang “Can You Fix It?” to the Bob the Builder tune. They helped send a message that was simple and impossible to ignore: warm homes start with safe homes, and repairs must come first.

At the action, my classmate Ellie made a formal ask of Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Housing and Communities and Vice Chair of the Housing APPG - to use his influence to urge all Liberal Democrat–run councils to integrate repair work into their Warm Homes Plan spending. My story shows why this matters on a human level: what it feels like to live in a home where repairs aren’t carried out, and what it costs families when they are left waiting.

And then something happened that showed our voices had made a real impact. I received an email from Gideon Amos himself. He confirmed that he has now written to every Liberal Democrat–run council in England, urging them to prioritise repair work alongside insulation, retrofit measures, and heat pumps when they receive their allocation of Warm Homes Plan funding. He encouraged the 75 Lib-Dem run councils to target the worst housing conditions first, to combine safety with energy efficiency, and to prepare to use new enforcement powers coming later this year.