Three weeks before he is expected to move into Downing Street, Andy Burnham used his first speech as the presumptive prime minister to promise the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period, alongside a radical devolution of power from Westminster. Speaking in Manchester, the city where he served a decade as mayor – a role that ultimately delivered the prize that had twice eluded him – Burnham outlined a vision he called “Manchesterism”, built on the approach he took in Greater Manchester.
He announced a new “Number 10 North” office based in Manchester, which would have specific responsibility for the housebuilding drive. “This is the biggest rebalancing of power in political history,” Burnham declared, vowing to give new powers to locally-elected leaders across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He also promised to raise living standards, reform business rates to support pubs, and hinted at giving people “a bit extra” to cope with rising costs. He declined to take questions from the media.
“Andy Burnham, three weeks from becoming PM, pledges biggest council housebuilding since postwar period and radical devolution.”
The housebuilding pledge has become a central plank of Burnham’s agenda. “If you don’t give people a good home, what chance do they have of having a good life?” he asked. But the scale of the ambition is immense. The previous Labour government failed to deliver its manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million homes in this Parliament. Successive governments have struggled to meet similar promises.
Experts from the i Paper, including former Conservative chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, warned of “notorious difficulties”. An estimated 240,000 additional construction workers would be needed, and new communities would require new schools, health provision and infrastructure. It is unclear how all this extra spending would be funded. Since 1979, the proportion of people living in council housing has dwindled from more than 30% to just 6%. Burnham clearly wants to reverse that trend.
The speech also evoked comparisons to Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government, which by 1951 had nationalised 20% of the economy and created the NHS. Burnham believes state ownership forms part of the solution to Britain’s economic woes, as Attlee did. But with the country struggling with onerous debts – just as in 1945 – the question of how to pay for it remains unanswered.