Potential future Prime Minister Andy Burnham has confirmed his previously stated aim of embarking on the “biggest programme of council house building since the post-war period,” as a central plank of his overall goals.

Following his win in the Makerfield byelection, Burnham vowed to pursue a “place first, not party first” strategy, within a devolution-oriented ‘Manchesterism’ agenda moving away from an “overcentralised” picture which was focused on central control from London. He said the state was “insufficiently accountable and outsourced” currently.

With the housing crisis having a “ruinous effect on the public finances,” Burnham said that his Government would “use vacant public land to reduce costs,” and promote higher density residential development in towns. He said the proposed ‘No. 10 North’ Government headquarters would “support all places to turn around their town centres,” while “protecting green spaces.”

The focus on building social housing would represent “a decisive shift to a more preventative, productive state,” said Burnham, under a “national housing-first philosophy” along the lines of the model used in Finland. He said the UK “had to finally put having a good home at the top of its priority list.”