The Prime Minister has pledged to remove the Right To Buy any new council houses built under his tenure.
In a powerful and emotional speech to the Labour Party Conference, he again highlighted his vision to kick-start the biggest council house building programme since the post-war era.
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And he left no doubt about his determination to rebuild the capacity for councils and social housing providers stating that he wanted 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,” he told party members at the conference in Liverpool.
“We will reform Right-to-Buy. Not taking the right away from anyone in an existing home, but removing it from the new homes we build so they are there for generations to come.
“Rebuilding our common wealth, restoring the public housing stock to what it once was, not just by building new, but acting on the private rented stock too.”
Mr Burnham went on to vow to tackle the empty homes crisis. He added: “Go to almost any town across Britain and you will see plenty of empty homes.
“We will give councils the power to take control of them and bring them back into the public housing stock.”
Just a few weeks after taking office as Prime Minister, Mr Burnham announced a £39 billion social housing plan.
It aims to build 300,000 social and affordable homes over 10 years. The first £10 billion has been allocated to partners with a target of 70,000+ new homes from initial funding.
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