Andy Burnham’s Push to Overhaul Homes England and Accelerate Council Housing

Andy Burnham, Labour’s prime-ministerial candidate, proposes dismantling the Whitehall quango Homes England and moving its £39 billion ten-year affordable-housing budget to regional mayoral combined authorities, letting mayors acquire land and commission council homes. Mayors Steve Rotheram (Liverpool) and David Skaith (York) back the plan.

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• Burnham must find an extra £4.7 billion for his first budget after Labour’s £15 billion defence increase.

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• The construction sector lacks 206,000 workers by 2030, needing 41,200 new recruits annually; EU labour loss of roughly 200,000 since 2019 worsens the gap (CITB, UK Trade Skills Index).

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• Planning approval averages three to four years, a timeline developers label “getting worse”.

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Starmer’s administration has introduced legislation to ease building on “grey-belt” land and is consulting reforms that would strip planning permission from developers who miss deadlines. Homes England chair Pat Ritchie said the agency processes social-affordable bids, but any structural change will need No 10 guidance. Burnham has urged redirecting £39 billion budget to council-rent homes and using vacant land to cut costs.

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Economist David Crosthwaite warned the building wave raises the questions “Who is going to build them? Who is going to pay for them?”. A house-building industry source doubts breaking up Homes England will retain flexibility to reallocate funds. Some mayors lack planning expertise or workforce capacity, and the three-to-four-year planning timeline threatens delivery.

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Mayors Steve Rotheram and David Skaith say direct funding will speed council-home delivery, while a house-building industry source warns breaking up Homes England could reduce flexibility and risk under-spending. Mechanism for reallocating £39 billion budget remains undefined.

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Reconfiguring Homes England could reshape affordable-housing delivery and test Labour’s fiscal capacity amid a strained construction market.

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• “Who is going to build them? Who is going to pay for them?” — Dr David Crosthwaite, chief economist, Building Cost Information Service

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• “Homes England has been too slow and clunky at delivering affordable housing from Whitehall, said Dr Simon Kaye, director of policy at the Re:State think-tank, whose advisory board includes Conservative and Labour figures.” — Dr Simon Kaye, director of policy, Re:State

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• “Homes England does important work and has teams based across the country, but where strong mayoral combined authorities are already in place, I believe their powers and funding should be devolved to local leaders.” — Steve Rotheram, Labour Mayor, Liverpool City Region

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• “The process is getting worse – it’s taking three or four years to get approval. It must be made quicker,” — Rico Wojtulewicz, director of policy, National Federation of Builders

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Burnham is expected to become prime minister by month’s end. Steps include a No 10 decision on Homes England, parliamentary debate on grey-belt reforms, and actions to tackle construction-worker shortfall.

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