BURNHAM ANNOUNCES £10BN COUNCIL HOUSING PACKAGE FOR 70,000 HOMES

Andy Burnham announced a £10bn spending package to build 70,000 new council homes across England. The prime minister stated that nearly £10bn would go to councils and housing associations to construct homes for social rent in areas with long waiting lists. Burnham described the move as a priority since taking office in July, saying "no child should be raised in a hostel room and no family should wait 10 years for a front door of their own". The funding comes from a £39bn allocation agreed during the 2025 spending review.

The announcement represents the government's first major spending commitment and contributes to a broader target of delivering 1.5 million homes during the current parliament. The package includes new powers for councils to accelerate building and make local decisions. Burnham has positioned council house construction as central to decentralisation policy and to reversing what he characterises as a social housing crisis. Some areas currently have council house waiting lists as long as 50 years, a situation the government attributes partly to failures to replace stock sold under Margaret Thatcher's 1980s right-to-buy scheme.

The announcement follows Reform UK's disclosure of plans to build 50,000 social housing homes annually, with eligibility restricted to married people, military veterans and British-born residents. Reform deputy leader Richard Tice acknowledged that the failure to replace council housing stock after the Thatcher sell-off constituted "a mistake". The government's commitment to ending rough sleeping forms part of the wider housing strategy outlined by Burnham.