‘Why ‘quick wins’ on housing will be key to Andy Burnham’s success’

In his speech in Manchester last week, Andy Burnham put housing at the top of the country’s priority list. He was right to do so and the task is significant.

Burnham will not begin with a clean slate. He will have to navigate the challenge of providing a new direction for Britain, while also sticking to Labour’s 2024 manifesto. This includes a pledge to deliver 1.5 million new homes before the end of this parliament.

The next Prime Minister will have some solid foundations to build on. The government has driven forward major reforms to outdated planning laws and committed to £39 billion for social and affordable homes. However, significant challenges remain. Every English region fell short of their indicative annual housing need target in 2025. Furthermore, the Office for Budget Responsibility projects that England will build around 240,000 homes a year by 2029-30.

Without further action, the government risks falling short of the 1.5 million target for this parliament and is also at risk of failing to meet a secondary but more deliverable target of building 300,000 new homes in a single year. In addition, questions have been asked about whether the £39bn committed through the Social and Affordable Housing Programme will fund the delivery of the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war era that Burnham has pledged.

READ MORE: ‘Labour must offer the politics of opportunity and aspiration’

If the Labour government under Andy Burnham wants to cut the cost of housing, rapidly increase the number of high-quality homes built across the country, and enable councils to build more, it must implement bold new reforms quickly. 

Quick Wins, the Fabian Housing Centre’s latest report, offers a practical plan to create a more effective planning system and enable the state to unlock thousands of new homes. Our recommendations can be implemented immediately at little or no cost, and without the need for new legislation, potentially unlocking more than 87,000 extra homes a year.

Burnham can develop reforms already underway. There is already a default ‘yes’ for housing and mixed-use developments near well-connected train and tram stations, proposed in the draft planning rules. This should be expanded to cover more of the commuter belt. Development on golf courses in the ‘grey belt’ should be encouraged, so communities can have more homes and more accessible green spaces. And local authorities should be required to adopt clearer rules through standardised housing frames and local design guides, so developers know what kinds of homes will receive quick decisions when it comes to planning permission. These have been implemented in New South Wales and Ireland.

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There are also quick wins that can increase the supply of social and council housing and ensure the £39bn from central government goes further. Councils’ ability to build should be strengthened, with a more favourable borrowing rate to build housing, by freeing them from most of the debt transferred to them in 2012 – returning it to the central government. A ‘right to build’ in rural areas should be introduced for social and affordable housing, establishing a presumption in favour of permission for rural exception sites – or small sites outside of an existing local plan. Mayors and councils should be supported to make full use of their compulsory purchase powers with financial support to deal with any judicial reviews and access to free expertise to boost capacity to buy land for development. 

Taken together, these 10 measures would achieve the highest number of homes built in over half a century. Our housebuilding rate in England would be the highest since Harold Wilson was our Prime Minister, the last northerner to hold the office. 

Under these plans, every community would benefit from good quality, affordable homes. Andy Burnham promised a revolution in housing. This is where he can start.

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