Burnham sets out vision for ‘public control’ of housing and infrastructure

Andy Burnham set out a vision for greater public control of housing and infrastructure in his debut conference speech as Labour leader.

Speaking to the party faithful on Tuesday afternoon, the new prime minister said the government would introduce reforms to bring “energy, water, housing back under public control”.

While he stopped short of commitments to nationalising existing utilities companies, he promised to bring forward a new Water Bill that would repeal the ban on public ownership of water companies, which he said would “start a 10-year journey for a very different water system”.

He also promised a suite of powers for local authorities to intervene and increase their own operations in the housing market, as well as greater role for the public sector in energy infrastructure.

“When people hear the phrase public control, I am sure some think it is anti-business,” he said, addressing critics of his more statist approach to government.

“It is the opposite. Businesses need the basics to be functional and affordable too”.

Burnham pointed out that British businesses paid some of the highest energy costs in Europe and said he wanted to bring these back into line with the UK’s neighbours within 10 years.

“This means reforming a broken energy market so it better serves the public interest,” he said, explaining that he had asked the energy minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh, to “speed up the breaking of the link between what we pay for power at home and the international gas market to get bills down”.

He also spoke of the difficulties that British firms have in accessing the energy grid, saying the issue “pushes costs up, it drags growth down and it holds British back”.

Burnham announced he would be introducing a ‘national energy plan’ and creating ‘Great British Grid’, a publicly-owned company that will “challenge the private sector operators […] increase competition, drive down cost and speed up connections so businesses can expand and grow more quickly”.

For the housing sector, Burnham re-iterated his promise to end rough sleeping and create “the biggest council housebuilding program since the post-war era”.

He said: “I am specific about council homes because we need to restore stronger democratic control over our housing stock. We will help councils build again and make it affordable by building on unused public land”.

Burnham also promised to end right to buy for new builds, and to give councils powers to take ownership of empty homes and to force private landlords to improve the worst quality rental homes.

“If they refuse, we will make it much easier for councils to acquire those homes and we will legislate if necessary,” he said.

He also mentioned Your First Home, a first-time buyer equity loan scheme announced ahead of conference, which he said would “open up home ownership to those not backed by the bank of Mum and Dad”.

Away from the housing and infrastructure sectors, the most notable announcement in Burnham’s speech was a plan to adjust the triple lock on pensions in order to fund universal social care.

The prime minister also promised to set up a national commission to explore electoral reform.