Homes matter. So does football coming home.

Campaigners rally to protect playing fields.

As we approach a World Cup year it’s timely to ask where are the future Kanes and Sakas going to take their first steps on fields of dreams? As we leave a year when the Lionesses again ruled Europe, where are the future Russos and Hamptons going to first develop? Many pitches continue to be at risk from housing developments.

Harry Kane opens a new London Playing Fields Foundation facility at the Sir Peter May Centre in Walthamstow in 2016. Kane played here as a kid - football and cricket.

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Hi all, Merry Christmas, hope your planning for the festivities is going well. I know I said I wouldn’t fill your in-box over Christmas but this is such an important issue: the assault on playing fields. I’ve written about this before but it’s a vital story about the need to protect pathways for sport, elite and purely recreational, and the importance to physical and mental health for all.

Concerned charities are currently engaged in a crucial Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government consultation exercise about whether Sport England should keep its statutory right to be consulted before pitches disappear under concrete. That right is under threat from a Government wanting to accelerate its housing programme. Consultation ends on January 13.

“There is a plethora of research that highlights the health, social and economic value of playing sport and being physically active on well-managed playing fields so we need to cherish and preserve these places for current and future generations,” says Alex Welsh, chief executive of the London Playing Fields Foundation.