ANDY Burnham made a series of lofty, if unspecific, promises in a speech on Monday, billed as an opportunity to set out his policy agenda. The one which has received the most attention is his pledge to oversee the biggest council housebuilding programme "since the post-war period".
The post-war period could mean the decades immediately after the Second World War, when Britain built around five million council homes, or it could refer to the later decades of the 1970s and 1980s, when council housebuilding had already slowed dramatically. Journalists were unable to field questions following the speech, and no further detail has emerged. Burnham also did not acknowledge that housing is a devolved issue.
What is clear, however, is that housing has become a central pillar of Burnham's political pitch. It was a major theme of his first campaign for Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017, when he promised to create more affordable homes and end rough sleeping by 2020.
So, if Manchester is the closest thing voters have to a testing ground for a Burnham premiership, what does his record in the “northern” city show?
How many homes did Burnham build in Manchester?
On the face of it, Manchester's housebuilding record is impressive.
The city council says just shy of 11,000 homes have been completed towards its target of building 36,000 new homes by 2032. Last year, nearly 3000 homes were delivered, the highest annual total in 15 years.
However, the council’s goal of delivering 10,000 affordable homes by 2028 looks unlikely to be met with only 21% having been built so far.
Public money for luxury flats
One of the most dogged critiques of Andy Burnham's time as Manchester Mayor has been the perception that instead of delivering the affordable housing he promised, he has backed private developers building luxury flats that ordinary Mancunians could never afford.
During his time as mayor, Manchester's skyline has transformed and is projected to become Europe's fourth-tallest city, leading to it being dubbed “Manc-hattan”.
Much of this development was driven by the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund, a pot of public money overseen by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which Burnham chaired.
Over Burnham's nine years in charge, the fund lent almost £1 billion to developers, with £555 million of that going to one company – Renaker.
Renaker has used the public money to build luxury apartments complete with dog spas, virtual golf simulators and panoramic penthouses.
Despite receiving hundreds of millions of pounds in public money, not one of Renaker's flats is classified as an affordable home.
This is in direct contrast with Burnham's own messaging during his original campaign to become Manchester Mayor. At the time, he criticised public money being used to support "large companies which should have used their own finance".
The GMCA strongly rejects suggestions that the loans were improper. It has successfully defended legal challenges brought by land owner Aubrey Weis, with both the Competition Appeal Tribunal and, more recently, the Court of Appeal ruling in its favour.
Despite these legal wins, Burnham's housing revolution has been criticised for delivering expensive assets for absentee landlords while leaving ordinary Manchester residents wanting.
Rough sleeping in Manchester
One of Burnham's key political goals was to "end rough sleeping by 2020".
The number of people sleeping on the streets of Greater Manchester fell from more than 250 in 2016 to 89 in 2021, and his “A Bed Every Night” (ABEN) scheme was widely praised for this reduction.
However, more recent figures suggest that rough sleeping has begun to rise again, reaching 197 people last year.
An investigation by The Manchester Mill found that, despite his initial success in reducing visible homelessness, the number of households in temporary accommodation in Manchester rose by 600% between 2013 and 2022, from fewer than 400 households to more than 2500, including thousands of children.
This increase was nine times faster than the national average and cost the council more than £30 million a year.
The Manchester Mill also reported claims that the ABEN scheme had created unintended consequences by increasing demand for social housing and creating a perception that Manchester was a city in which social housing could be easily acquired. It also reported claims that people referred through the scheme were being prioritised for social housing over families already stuck in temporary accommodation.
In short, Burnham did initially reduce visible street homelessness, but those improvements have quickly reversed and he has overseen a dramatic rise in households living in temporary accommodation.
What does this mean for Burnham's new promise?
There is no doubt that Manchester has built thousands of new homes and undergone a dramatic transformation during his time as mayor. But critics argue that too many of those homes have been out of reach for ordinary residents and lofty promises have not been kept.
While his plan to increase the council housing stock is commendable it remains to be seen how, or whether, the “King of the North” will be able to deliver it.
