Conservatives have 'huge mountain to climb'

Conservative leader David Cameron has told the party's Spring conference that the party has a "huge mountain to climb" to win back power in Britain's cities.

In his first party conference speech since becoming Conservative leader in December last year, Mr Cameron spoke of the "four keys" that must be turned to improve life in the country's big urban centres.

Mr Cameron told the Spring Forum in Manchester that tackling crime, improving schools and housing and urban regeneration were the essential ingredients of renewing Britain's cities.

He said: "There are four keys to improving life in our cities. The first is tackling crime - crime drives people out of our cities. The second key is good schools. Bad schools in our cities drive families out of cities and we need to be the party that's about quality education for everybody in all of our schools.

"The third key is housing and the physical infrastructure. We have got a situation where first-time buyers are just finding it more and more difficult to just get a foothold. We have got to help those young people with a revolution in shared ownership. And the fourth key is regional and urban renewal - and urban revival is about people. It's something you do with people and not something you do to people."

Mr Cameron concluded: "We are now the biggest party in local government. The party is back in our cities, but we do still have a huge mountain to climb, a huge way to go.

"We won't achieve that urban revival just by talking about it, we will achieve it by having this clear set of policies. In the end, it's all about our values, it's trusting people, recognising that if give people power over their lives, they become stronger and society becomes stronger."

Earlier at the conference, party chairman Francis Maude paid tribute to the new leader and highlighted how the party is now "on the up" for the first time in years.

However, he said it would be "wrong" for the Conservatives to expect Mr Cameron to "carry the entire burden" of persuading people that the party had changed. He said: "As a party we vaunt our belief in personal responsibility. We must all take personal responsibility for the success of our shared venture, not contract it all out to the leader."

(KMcA)