Decisions are too often made about our communities, without our communities. That has to change.
Too many decisions affecting East Birmingham are taken in rooms where no one from East Birmingham is sat. Housing strategies, policing priorities, school funding, regeneration plans — all shaped by people who will never have to live with the consequences.
Real representation is not just about having someone with the right surname in the room. It is about whether they actually carry the voices, frustrations and hopes of the people who sent them. It is about whether they listen more than they speak.
I will always believe that the best ideas for our communities already exist inside them. The job of leadership is to amplify those voices, not to drown them out.