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Housing Policy died around the mid-1990s. It died a slow silent death. What was once an important ministerial portfolio was subsumed into urban regeneration agendas and programmes to tackle anti-social behaviour. In the last month, with the mild furore over the cutting of housing benefit, we have witnessed the death rattles of housing policy.

There is a new test in town for measuring the social justness quotient of the policy solutions preached most dogmatically by New Labour over the past decade: Have they been continued by a Coalition government that seems with every new announcement to be seeking either to outflank Thatcher or test the credulity of the nation?

A new book called the Spirit Level spells out in convincing detail the statistical relationship between a whole range of social ills (for example crime, bad health, teenage pregnancies, and lack of trust) and levels of inequality within developed countries. It is inequality, not GDP, which appears to determine a countries ability to tackle the long-standing and fundamental social problems we face.

Like many people across the world, and many members of Compass, I was inspired by Richard Wilkinson's and Kate Pickett's book The Spirit Level: Why Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. For me, it provided compelling evidence for what I had always felt: that it is not just the least well off who feel the effects of inequality - everyone's lives are worsened by it.

Whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever your faith, or none, we are all England. This is the message of the 'I am England' campaign launched today on St George's Day with less than two months to go to the World Cup.

The key test of any centre-left public policy framework in the 21st century has to be whether it instils into society and the economy our core values of democracy, equality and sustainability. Nowhere else can this better be demonstrated than in the challenge of formulating a progressive energy policy for the future.

In After The Crash, we argue that it is time for a new coalition of ideas and action on the centre left. The election approaches and Britain begins the long haul out of deep recession. In such a crisis, one would expect an alternative to neo-liberalism to be riding high in the polls. Instead, the party which is ahead, the Conservative Party, offers no alternative. The Labour leadership differ only by degrees. It too shares the same desire to minimise change.

We're delighted to report that 200 people have registered to attend our summit in Liverpool on Thursday 4 March from 6.15pm Debating Inequality UK: how to solve our social recession? The summit, which is now fully booked, has been poignantly convened in the most deprived city in Europe outside of London, with Prof Richard Wilkinson author of the groundbreaking book The Spirit Level a keynote speaker, other speakers include: Ann Pettifor of nef and author of The Coming Debt Crisis; Neal Lawson, Compass and chaired by Cllr Jane Corbett.

Discussions regarding the future of care have focused heavily around the elderly. However disabled people are also at the heart of this matter, especially disabled students.

Gordon Brown was not particularly bang on the money when recently at the Fabian conference he outlined what sounded very much like a Middle Class only electoral strategy, all backed up by a language of aspiration that risks alienating even more Labour voters on top of the 4 million New Labour has driven away since ‘97. Instead Labour should be articulating a post credit crunch agenda, with a popular appeal that seeks greater economic justice for all.