Council housebuilding boom is central to Burnham's vision. Can it be done?

A council housing-building push is central to Andy Burnham’s vision for restoring local control over residential development, but the scale of the challenge is colliding with delivery delays. In Manchester’s Collyhurst Village, residents such as Coral McKeown said a council home she was supposed to move into five years ago remains behind metal fencing and is not expected to be ready until at least next year. Burnham set out the plan on Monday, arguing for a Labour administration under his control to oversee “the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period” and link it to broader masterplanning of amenities, transport and construction. He tied the loss of almost 1.5 million council homes since the 1980s to long waiting lists that have grown to a similar scale nationwide. With England targeting 300,000 new homes a year, Savills data showed only 840,000 expected under construction by mid-2029 after two stagnant years. Construction is forecast to stay sluggish into 2027.