Burnham's housing pledge faces England's falling homebuilding numbers

Andy Burnham pledged 10,000 new council homes by 2028 in Greater Manchester. England built fewer homes last year, and the gap between promise and delivery is still wide enough to swallow even the boldest local pledge.

Burnham's Greater Manchester benchmark

Burnham's housing agenda in Greater Manchester is built on several overlapping promises. He set a longer-term goal of ending the housing crisis in Greater Manchester by 2038 and backed a separate commitment to deliver 30,000 net zero social rented homes across the city-region by the same year.

Greater Manchester put its capacity at 75,000 new homes in this parliament, presenting that figure as support for the national target of 1.5 million homes. That makes the city-region a live test case for Burnham's argument: if a devolved authority can coordinate land, planning, finance and delivery around a single housing strategy, it could become a model for government elsewhere. If it cannot, the national crisis will overtake the timetable before the first promises are met.

England's output is moving the wrong way

The national backdrop is unforgiving. Annual housing supply in England was 208,600 net additional dwellings in 2024-25, down 6% on the year before, according to the UK government. That is not a collapse, but it is a reminder that supply is still fragile and vulnerable to the sort of pressures that tend to slow development: land availability, planning delays, financing costs and the pace at which builders can turn permissions into finished homes.

Homes England's managed programmes delivered 38,308 housing starts and 36,872 completions in 2024-25, alongside 30,087 affordable housing starts. Starts show what is entering the pipeline; completions show what has actually been delivered. The figures point to a system that is still producing homes, but not at a scale that makes big political promises feel easy to bank on.

That is the core reality test for Burnham's pitch. A pledge of 75,000 homes in one parliament sounds substantial until it is measured against the national drop in supply and the practical limits of construction capacity. Even where political will is strong, the sector still depends on sites, approvals, labour, materials and up-front money.

Local planning still reveals uncertainty

Sheffield's housing planning evidence shows how quickly local need figures can move as councils revisit their assumptions. Sheffield City Council puts its updated annual local housing need figure at 2,389 homes, down from 3,036 and also below the 2,667 figure in the draft July 2024 consultation. The changes show that even basic planning numbers are not fixed, but are revised as the evidence base changes.

The same evidence base gives a picture of the city the numbers are meant to serve. Sheffield has a population of 556,500, with 26% of residents from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds and 20% disabled residents. Its housing strategy is intended to guide delivery over the next 10 years and complement the new Local Plan.

A city-region can set a headline target, but every council still has to identify sites, reconcile competing uses and satisfy a planning system built to balance growth with constraint.

Housing quality is part of the public health story

Burnham's housing agenda is not only about building more homes. Greater Manchester wants to become the first city-region where every rented home is above the decent homes standard, backed by a UK-first Good Landlord Charter and a new Property Check system. The plan would let councils intervene and acquire properties from landlords unwilling or unable to meet standards.

That adds a public health dimension to the housing debate. A strategy focused only on completions would miss the condition of the existing stock, where poor standards can leave renters trapped in insecure, unhealthy homes. Its housing plan ties housing to a healthy home by 2038.

The social equity stakes are especially clear in places like Sheffield, where a sizable share of residents are disabled and where more than a quarter come from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds. Housing policy reaches into those communities through rent levels, accessibility, damp, energy efficiency and landlord enforcement.