Burnham to make council housing drive his ‘top priority’
In a speech in Manchester on Monday, 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.”
I’m feeling optimistic for the first time in years.
By Lucky Number 7
Manchester gets enough civil service jobs as it is. Move No 10 to Steve’s plush office overlooking the Mersey, he can move to Wallasey town hall.
By Anon
Most people don’t want more council houses or a northern no. 10.
By Anonymous
Burnham has had 10 years as Mayor to promote council housing in GM. The result? Not much. Plenty of public subsidy has gone into subsidising developers build expensive towers in central Manchester though.
By Anonymous
Good. It’s about time someone had the courage to stand up to the volume house builders who continue to build unaffordable homes in the wrong places—developments that many communities neither want nor ask for.
This is a far more sensible approach than the developer-led planning system we currently have. The fact that he specifically mentions prioritising brownfield sites is also encouraging and, hopefully, signals an end to speculative planning applications on the Green Belt.
If Burnham is serious about delivering a social housing revolution, he will also need to push for changes to the current NPPF. As it stands, the introduction of the “grey belt” definition makes it too easy for developers to secure planning permission on Green Belt land, often winning on appeal.
By Tom Quinn
I do hope he becomes PM. He is the most capable out there.
By Anonymous
Starmer in jeans
By Anonymous
Go for it Andy! Wishing you all the best
By GM resident
There can be no doubt that we need to shift power from Whitehall to the regions. Those down there have protected the capital for eternity and throw a few crumbs elsewhere every now and then. Dependency in the regions is as high as ever and successive governments have failed to address it. So we need to try something new…..it can’t possibly be worse can it?
By Jcy
Anon at 2.50pm
How do you know?
By Miss Ann Thrope
Great Manchester has under-delivered affordable housing for the last decade.
As mayor, Burnham sought to reduce land for homes in the GM plan by deleting lots of sites.
Yes, housing needs a renewed focus, but unless Burnham radically raises taxes for everyone, where’s the money coming from for public sector built homes.
By Anonymous
The country desperately needs more social housing and a number 10 of the north is a great idea.
By Anonymous
Defend the country first Mr Burnham.
By Peter
He had years to clean up Piccadilly gardens and failed miserably.
By Peter
Peter – Piccadilly Gardens is the responsibility of Manchester City council not the GM mayor.
By Anonymous
Anonymous 2.50pm why do you feel you know what “most people” wants? Have you spoken with most people in the country? Speaking for myself a number 10 for the north sounds like a good proposal and the country needs lots more council housing, but I only speak for myself.
By Anonymous
What do you mean, Peter?
By Principle
So he’s brownfield first. Ok so Grey Belt going I hope?
By Anonymous
Revise the NPPF Andy and abolish Starmers terrible Greybelt policy! Prioritise Brownfield land and protect our greenbelt!
By Prue Edwards
Great ideas. A no 10 for the north, more power and money up here to counterbalance London. And yes more council house building is good. More people in homes they can afford, less tax payers money being funnelled into the hands of private landlords etc. Lots of naysayers but lets hope he gets the time to turn things around. Good lucky Andy.
By Anonymous
2nd Liverpudlian as Prime Minister he’s also done a great job delivering for Manchester
By Anonymous
People need genuinely affordable houses, not mansions built on greenbelt land (destroying the countryside around our towns and villages) which purely make profit for developers. People need flats and 2 and 3 bed houses in towns, where there are employment opportunities and shops. Regenerate the heart of the community by helping businesses stay in town centres. We have a lot of brownfield sites that are can be used more thoughtfully in priority to putting developments on the edge of semi rural villages. Those villages often have poor trains and poor road infrastructures and any new inhabitants will have to drive everywhere! The whole misguided policy of grey belt / make the green belt “not inappropriate” to build on was driven by developers for profit and is a vote-loser all round … by those in the countryside and those missing out in towns and cities !
By Rachel, Claygate, Surrey
Council houses are not good
By Anonymous
I think he’s going to be furious when he finds out who was GM mayor for the last ten years, when the focus was on subsidising shiny glass towers in central Manchester rather than building huge amounts of Council housing. He’s leaving a bit of a poisoned chalice for Bev Craig on that score.
By Anonymous
Giving more power to the regions in principle is fine however the people receiving the money and responsibility need to be first class. Mr Rotheram has a seriously underwhelming record and could not run a bath .
By Paul
I think the south west needs to take the bulk of these council homes, the North west has born the brunt of new housing over the last decade
By Jon P
@Anonymous (June 29, 2026 at 7:14 pm). You don’t need to raise taxes to pay for increased social housing. It can be funded, relatively easily, by borrowing against the future savings the government will make in housing benefit. It currently costs the state around 64% more per household housed in private rental accomodation than it does per household housed in social rented accomodation. There are also wider benefits which would also contribute to outweighing the costs of borrowing – including the jobs and wider economic uplift that comes with a mass building programme and improvements to people’s health and wellbeing (= significant savings to the NHS) arising from the availability of secure, safe and suitable affordable housing.
By Anonymous
because he did such a great job championing affordable housing in Manchester… oh wait no, instead he created loop holes for developers instead yay!
By Anonymous
Councils building anything is generally a recipe for disaster
By Tannoy
Definitely a few bitter Reformists here realising that they’ve hit peak Nigel and that Burnham is looking to give people something tangible which will address some of the ‘Look at that foreigner wanting some of your biscuit’ rhetoric from Central High Grift Command. They’ll be needing some better lines to trot out now. Let’s see if they’ve got them, or if it’s just a further drift/descent to pinch back some Restore defectors.
By Northern Monkey
Northern Monkey..it’s the GreenParty you should be worried about. Nigel F is clearly living in your head rent free. I’d support Burnham if I thought he could make the slightest difference but that would mean living in an actual democracy which we don’t only the illusion of one run by the City of London corporation and its many assorted NGO’s. Good luck to him though.
By Anonymous
If the Weis lawsuit is successful, which I think it will be, Burnham is done for. He has actively facilitated the delivery of unaffordable housing in Manchester via the Mayorality.
By Heritage Action
Not one economist thinks that Burnham will deliver growth,
By Anonymous
Thanks anonymous. You almost made sense there. But not quite. The Greens aren’t going to win the mayoral election, nor are they going to hold much power at the next GE. So I’m not overly worried in that sense and I can spot a Reformist a mile off on these pages these days. Hence the comment.
As a favour though, I’ll help you out and advise that ‘rent-free’ became an embarrassing term to use even amongst social media football fans about five years ago. That should hopefully save you from having to deploy it again.
By Northern Monkey
Anonymous 1.58 pm, have you spoken with every economist?
By Anonymous
Heritage Action – Andy Burnham isn’t yet the Prime Minister yet you look forward to his downfall with such glee.
By Anonymous
No thanks am voting Reform
By Anonymous