The BBC has asked whether Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, can solve the housing crisis (BBC News, 17 July 2026). A companion article by the BBC's policy correspondent Ben Chu was published the previous day (BBC News, 16 July 2026).

The focus on Burnham comes as the national housing picture gets worse. The number of new homes started in England fell from 207,000 to 139,000 after Labour took office, according to BBC News (BBC News, 8 December 2025). On the same date, Housing Secretary Steve Reed said a sharp rise in housebuilding is needed to hit the government's target of 1.5 million new homes. Housebuilders told ministers the target would be missed.

The numbers back up those warnings. FullFact, a fact-checking organisation, estimates that 342,100 new homes were added in England between 9 July 2024 and 15 March 2026. That is about 22.8 per cent of the 1.5 million target (FullFact, 5 May 2026). An internal government assessment obtained by The Times in March 2026 found the government expects to fall well short of the goal (The Times, 29 March 2026). The Guardian reported in April that the Iran war has created economic uncertainty, leading Barratt Redrow, the UK's biggest housebuilder, to buy less new land for building. This has further dented the 1.5 million target for England (The Guardian, 15 April 2026).

Burnham's housing plans for Greater Manchester have been in place for some time. In May 2024 he pledged 10,000 new council homes by 2028 (GMCA, 7 May 2024). On the same day, the BBC reported Burnham's call to suspend Right to Buy, a scheme that lets council tenants buy their home at a discount. He said the scheme is making the housing crisis "worse every year" (BBC News, 7 May 2024). Greater Manchester then announced a UK-first landlord charter in July 2024 to improve standards in the rental sector (GMCA, 12 July 2024). The combined authority has also published a "New Deal for Renters" page, with a goal to bring all rented homes in Greater Manchester up to the Government's decent homes standard (GMCA).

In June 2026, Burnham told the BBC the country is "in a housing trap" and said the crisis is having a "ruinous" impact (BBC News, 29 June 2026). His ten-year vision for Greater Manchester, set out in July 2025, aimed to deliver "our best decade since the Victorian era" (GMCA, 9 July 2025).

The government has not stood still on planning reform. A gov.uk news release in December 2024 outlined an overhaul of the planning system, described as a plan to "accelerate housebuilding and deliver 1.5 million homes over this Parliament" (gov.uk, 12 December 2024). A year later, the government published a release titled "Housing Sec pledges to go further than ever before to hit 1.5 million homes," calling it "another major step forward in the government's unrelenting focus to build 1.5 million high-quality homes" (gov.uk, 16 December 2025). The government's housing department blog pushed back in October 2025 against coverage questioning whether the target can be met (MHCLG, 29 October 2025).

Steve Reed has pointed to planning law changes as the source of "green shoots" in the latest housing supply figures, writing on the government blog on 15 January 2026: "I said I will build 1.5 million homes and I meant it" (MHCLG blog, 15 January 2026). The government's official housing supply figures, published on 19 June 2026, cover new supply in England for January to March 2026 and reference the 1.5 million homes target (gov.uk, 19 June 2026).

The broader context here is one of tension between central and local Labour on housing. The 1.5 million homes target applies to England only. Housing policy is run separately by the governments in Scotland (Holyrood), Wales (the Senedd), and Northern Ireland (Stormont). Burnham's local interventions, including his call to suspend Right to Buy, put him in a different policy conversation from ministers in London, who have not adopted that position. His 10,000 council homes pledge by 2028 is a specific commitment that can be tracked on its own, separate from the national figures.

The wider question the BBC's feature raises is whether a local mayor with his own planning powers and a council-building programme can do better than the national government, which has so far reached less than a quarter of its target. The answer matters beyond Greater Manchester. If local authorities can deliver homes where central government is struggling, the argument for giving them more housing powers grows stronger. If they cannot, the case that the problem is about the system itself, rather than who is in charge, gains weight.