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Can Burnham Fix the Housing Crisis? — Transcript · YTtoTranscript

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Can Burnham Fix the Housing Crisis?

TLDR News · 1,577 words · 8 min read · EN-ORIG

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Below is the complete, readable transcript of Can Burnham Fix the Housing Crisis? by TLDR News on YouTube. Read the full text, copy any part you need, or generate a transcript for any video with our free tool.

There were a lot of criticisms one can make about Keir Starmer's clarity of communication, but one thing he made clear while in office was that addressing the housing crisis was among his top priorities. In Labour's 2024 manifesto, the party committed to building 1 and 1/2 million new homes in the next Parliament, equivalent to

around 300,000 new homes per year. While there were significant changes to the planning system made to try and accommodate this, for instance, the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Act of 2025, which aimed to ease the regulatory burden on house builders, data showed that Starmer was never really on track to meet his

target. In order to meet the target, around 44,850 applications would need to be initiated each month. However, across 2025, only an average of 18,389 were, merely 41% of the amount needed. Even in the best month, October, planning applications reached 24,304, 54% of the amount needed. In fact, across 2025, the UK only saw a total of

187,494 planning applications, less than in 2022 and 2023. The UK is now, though, under the leadership of Andy Burnham, who's also insisted that he, too, will put an emphasis on house building. Already, Angela Rayner, his housing secretary, has published a new national planning policy framework, which aims to make it harder for local planners to block

developments, which, in theory, should increase the construction of new houses. But, will this be enough? Can Andy Burnham get Labour back on track and deliver what Starmer promised in his 2024 manifesto? Let's have a look. >> [music] >> Who is Andy Burnham really? >> I'm now the Prime Minister. You are? >> He's the Prime Minister.

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>> How did he craft his King the North image? And can he sustain it? In the latest edition of our magazine, we explore the pre-Prime Minister history of Britain's new leader. That's just one of the articles in our longest issue ever. Subscribe to get your copy by clicking the link in the description.

Now, as we just mentioned, one of the only tangible changes to housing policy made so far under Burnham are the new changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, or NPPF. So, it's worth starting off by explaining what the NPPF actually is. In the UK, planning decisions are largely made by local planning offices.

Their job is to judge planning applications against the local plan for areas, which is drafted by local planning authorities. These local plans are based on the NPPF, and sometimes also spatial development strategies, meaning that while there are slight deviations in planning rules from area to area, all plans must ultimately conform to the NPPF.

Now, in an attempt to make house building easier, last week the government announced some key changes to the NPPF, two of which garnered significant media attention. The new default yes rule for sustainable developments within settlements, i.e. cities and towns, and the new default yes rule for homes near well-connected stations outside settlements. On the

first of these changes, the new NPPF states that development proposals within settlements, i.e. within cities and towns, should be approved unless the benefits of doing so would be substantially outweighed by any adverse effects. Now, technically, while this has been explained in some places as a new rule, which means that developers, by default, will be given the green

light to build new houses in cities, there are still ways in which local councils could intervene and continue to block developments. Planners could simply judge that adverse effects, for example, conservation or the impact on traffic, outweighs the advantage of building, or they could rule that the development goes against the local plans. However, it should be noted that

on the latter of these points, the NPPF contains another new stipulation, that if a local policy plan is in part or in whole materially inconsistent with the NPPF, then it should be given very limited weight. Again, in theory, this should make it easier for developers to have their plan signed off. Anyway, onto the second of these

changes, and probably the one that has gained the most media attention. The stipulation that land within reasonable walking distance of a well-connected train station should get automatic approval. This includes those within settlements, those outside settlements, and even in some circumstances in the green belt. Now, while this all sounds pretty good, there was a chance that

this change might not have been that significant. In the consultation draft of the new NPPF, it was suggested that applications near train stations would need a density of 50 dwellings per hectare. This is quite a high bar, and while this would have worked for urban stations, it could have prevented developments in suburban and rural

stations. However, in the final document, the specified density was reduced to between 35 and 45 dwellings per hectare, with the higher density for stations with eight plus trains per hour. So, it's hoped that this new policy will lead to the development of a new train belt. If it is successful, these new properties will have two additional

advantages to the government. The first is that they will encourage those that live there to take advantage of their rail connections, reducing car usage and reducing CO2 output. Second, it will boost economic activity, making it easier for people to commute to jobs in cities and areas with better economic opportunities. So, that's the theory

behind the new NPPF rules. But, what does this all mean? Will this actually lead to a rise in planning applications and therefore more houses? Well, clearly the main hope is that these changes will stop planning offices and councils getting in the way of planning applications. Incidentally, this is done via government instruction, which is

actually slightly contrary to Burnham's wider devolution agenda. This is what has led some politicians and parties, notably Reform UK and the Conservatives, to oppose these changes. Tory MP Oliver Dowden condemned the changes while looking distraught in the field, and his party's Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly called it a power grab by Labour seizing control

from local communities. Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice said the changes were in direct contradiction of Andy Burnham's devolution agenda. Others, like the Centre for Cities think tank, welcomed the changes, calling them crucial to growth and productivity. Regardless, the changes have been made, and the question now is whether they will actually work. Fundamentally, this will come down to

whether property developers believe that these new rules and the new areas that they're able to submit applications for will make it profitable enough for them to actually build there. While this obviously could still be the case, and more applications will likely be approved, unfortunately, there is still uncertainty involved in planning applications. Unlike other countries that use a zonal

planning system, Britain's case-by-case planning system means that each planning application is at the discretion of local planning offices. While the new NPPF rules make applications more likely to be approved, they don't fundamentally address this uncertainty, and as such, the system itself still doesn't address one of the biggest deterrents to developers. It also does little to

change the legal routes that some councils could go down to try and block developments. So, while this is likely a good start, if Burnham really does want to meet Labour's house-building mission, he's likely going to have to go even further. Now, with a story like this, it takes us a lot of time and research to make sure

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