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We are starting to see a pattern in the announcements that Andy Burnham has made over his first few weeks as Prime Minister. He makes a promise that’s full of belief and righteousness, and then has to follow that up with a policy where the detail contains an admission that he hadn’t fully thought this one through.
Most notably, we’ve had the ‘end rough sleeping’ pledge, which, on contact with reality, turned into a plan for everyone to get a ‘route out of rough sleeping by Christmas’. This week, we saw the difference between Burnham’s argument that new affordable housing funding should be ‘dedicated to council housing’, and the reality.
This week, we saw the difference between Burnham’s argument that new affordable housing funding should be ‘dedicated to council housing’, and the reality
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner announced the first wave of funding for affordable homes – something Keir Starmer had actually set off when he was prime minister. What’s different now is that more of the homes are to be social housing. When Starmer’s government agreed the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP), it was more focused on the overall supply of housing, particularly private homes. But Burnham has long been much more focused on council housing, and argued when campaigning for his seat in Makerfield that the money should be ‘dedicated to council homes… I’m saying council homes because control matters’.
