Burnham to make council housing drive his ‘top priority’

In a speech in Manchester today, Andy Burnham promised to introduce a Finnish approach to housing, roll out GM-style good growth funds across the country, and give more powers to mayors if he becomes Prime Minister.

Under pressure to provide more detail on what he would do if, as expected, he succeeds Keir Starmer, the former Mayor of Greater Manchester today set out a 10-year “mission” that he said would improve the lives of residents across the country and restore their faith in the political system.

Lifting Britain out of a ‘housing trap’

Burnham said he would accelerate council housebuilding to lift the country out of what he described as a “housing trap” having a “ruinous impact” on public finances.

“We are forced to chase rent in the private rented sector through the benefits system,” he said.

“When governments try to control these costs by freezing the local housing allowance, it makes families homeless and places unfunded pressures on councils when they have to pay for temporary accommodation.”

To fix the problem, Burnham said his government would adopt a housing first approach like that of Finland – where homelessness has fallen sharply in recent years – and help councils use brownfield land they own to develop affordable housing in town centres.

“Everything starts with a good home, and this country finally has to put that at the top of its priority list,” he said.

Increasing residential density in town centres would drive footfall that could help to reverse high street decline, as well as protect green spaces from development, Burnham said.

Many councils across the country are already taking this approach in response to declining retail in town centres, including in many places in Greater Manchester such as Oldham and Bolton.

Burnham reiterated plans to help change the fortunes of UK high streets by reforming business rates.

“Rather than being a marker of decline, shouldn’t we make our high streets the new symbol of Britain’s renaissance?” he said.

Burnham was given standing ovations before and after his speech. Credit: PNW

Number 10 North

Burnham’s council homes crusade and his efforts to turbocharge town centre regeneration will be run out of ‘Number 10 North’, described by the PM-in-waiting as “the nerve centre of a rewired Britain”.

Establishing Number 10 North in Manchester would be part of plans for the “the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times”, he said.

He used the speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester to reiterate his commitment to push the devolution agenda into a higher gear and address the country’s power imbalance by giving more autonomy to the regions.

To do this, he plans to hand over more powers on education, welfare, and housing to elected mayors such as Steve Rotheram in Liverpool City Region, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, and Richard Parker in the West Midlands, all of whom were seated on the front row for the speech.

Good growth funds, like to £2bn pot of public and private sector cash established in Greater Manchester, would be rolled out to “all areas”, Burnham added.

Fixing the system

Monday’s appearance was Burnham’s first major speech since winning the Makerfield by-election and Starmer’s resignation. He was introduced by Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council and the Labour candidate for the upcoming mayoral by-election that will decide Burnham’s replacement.

If unopposed in the race to be the new leader of the Labour Party, Burnham could be Prime Minister by 20 July. In recent days, there has been growing speculation over who he would appoint to his cabinet, with particular scrutiny on who will replace Rachel Reeves as chancellor.

His speech gave few clues on who his next-door neighbour on Downing Street would be  – nor did it mention immigration, which is among the most important issues for voters – but he did confirm he would be sticking to Reeves’ fiscal rules, which limit borrowing.

Burnham would be the UK’s seventh Prime Minister since Brexit and, by setting out a decade-long mission to raise living standards, hopes to be “the circuit-breaker” that can end the prime ministerial revolving door of the last decade. Labour is currently languishing in the polls following two years in office, a slide Burnham hopes he can arrest by rebuilding trust between politicians and the public.

He will face many of the same challenges that his predecessor faced, including stagnant economic growth, sluggish housing delivery, and strained public services but is keen to move away from a culture of political point-scoring towards one that allows MPs to get stuff done. This, he thinks, will restore public faith in the political system.

“The country spends too much time arguing and not enough time doing,” he said.

“I will reach out to other political parties to find as much common ground as we can and build that more collaborative approach. A greater sense of unity in parliament will then allow us to give a clearer sense of direction to Whitehall.

“The time has come to build the broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up to where we all want it to be.”