Prime Minister Pledges Postwar-Scale Council Housebuilding Programme

This commitment arrives as statutory homelessness in Britain continues to hit record highs, with around 134,000 households in temporary accommodation.

Nationally, almost 180,000 children are growing up without a permanent home.

Councils will retain all money generated from right-to-buy receipts, reinvesting these funds directly into new social and affordable housing.

For the first time, three local councils stand among the 33 "strategic partners" receiving guaranteed funding for the decade-long program.

Andy Burnham stated, "Councils built this country out of a housing crisis once before. Backed properly, and trusted to get on with it, they will do it again."

Mr. Burnham has faced accusations of watering down his ambitions after previously calling for the entire £39 billion social and affordable homes program to be spent on council housing.

Sir James Cleverly claims this represents a "sleight of hand under Labour" and an "unfunded spending commitment."

Sir James Cleverly also claims the small print shows homes will not have to be delivered until 2039, with the Tories asserting funding had been "backloaded" to fall outside the spending review and this Parliament.

Despite the new pledges, the net number of homes for social rent dropped by 3,834 across 2024/25; sales of local authority stock drove this decline.

Local authority housing debt reportedly rose from £29 billion in 2012 to £31 billion.

Promises to add social housing to new developments in Suffolk have reportedly been broken on every occasion over the past 24 years.

The housing industry employs about 2 million skilled workers; however, to increase housing production to 300,000 units a year, over a million additional skilled workers would reportedly be needed, who would have to be imported from overseas.

Concerns also persist that £9 billion allocated to councils will be absorbed by bureaucracy and consultants.