The Mayor of Greater Manchester has shared his thoughts on various areas of housing policy at Housing 22.
At a fireside chat at the CIH event, Andy Burnham was quizzed on everything from devolution to homelessness, retrofitting and levelling-up.
On levelling-up, one of the government’s main policy commitments, he said: “we [Manchester] haven’t even begun to see the level of resource that achieves proper levelling-up.”
He added: “Michael gove [Levelling-Up Secretary] has done some good work on defining leveling up – but I would go further and focus on housing.”
He was also critical of the government’s recent Right to Buy proposals.
“If we could opt out we would do it tomorrow,” he said.
Turning to devolution, Burnham said: “It has to be about place before party.”
He added: “You [housing sector] should be demanding devolution as much as us…If we get a good devolution for both of us I think it could be a good opportunity for the housing world.”
Elsewhere, Burnham was keen to promote his work around alleviating homelessness in the Manchester area.
Referencing the Greater Manchester Housing First pilot and the A Bed Every Night scheme, Burnham said that “we have completely turned things around”.
He added: “How have we done it? It’s that whole GM [Greater Manchester] approach where everyone pulls together.”
Burnham said that the A Bed Every Night Scheme now houses around 500 people each night.
At one point, Burnham was quizzed on whether he would again run for the Labour leadership.
“I’m not ruling it out – one day, maybe,” he said.
Going further, on what he would do if he were to ever become prime minister, he said “policy number one” would be to make “good safe housing a human right in law”.
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