Political Shake-Up Leaves Housing Sector Seeking Stability

The UK housing and construction sectors will need to navigate yet another period of political transition following Keir Starmer’s resignation. With the path now clear for the country’s seventh Prime Minister in a decade, the market is urgently calling for policy consistency. At Thomas Gray, the conversations we are having with Executive teams across the built environment echo a single overriding priority: the need for stability to protect long-term delivery pipelines.

Andy Burnham, the newly elected MP for Makerfield, is widely expected to be announced as Starmer’s successor after key rivals stepped aside to allow for an orderly transition. Starmer confirmed his departure outside Downing Street, stating the move allows the parliamentary party to prepare for the next general election under fresh leadership. For the built environment, this latest transition underscores a familiar challenge, namely the critical need for predictable regulatory frameworks and long-term commitment to development goals.

The Core Challenge in Numbers

1.3 Million+ households currently sit on England’s social housing waiting list.
12,000 true social rent homes are currently delivered nationwide each year.
500,000 council and social homes targeted by the end of the decade under the proposed platform.

📋 Anticipated Policy Impact on the Housing Sector

As the former Greater Manchester Mayor prepares to contest the leadership, his established regional track record offers a blueprint for what we can expect for the future direction of housing policy. The incoming agenda is expected to focus heavily on public control, aggressive social housebuilding and stricter enforcement:

A Historic Surge in Social Rent: Achieving the proposed target of half a million homes would mean pivoting the existing £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme entirely toward social rent, potentially backed by the National Wealth Fund.

Planning Devolution & Local Control: Shifting away from centralised Westminster control, the platform questions the need for scheme-by-scheme micromanagement by national bodies such as Homes England. A devolved model is favoured instead, drawing on the Greater Manchester Trailblazer deal, which granted 100% business rate retention and local control over a £400m affordable homes fund to drive regional delivery.

Right to Buy Reform: To protect new housing stock from dwindling, strong support has been voiced for suspending or heavily reforming the Right to Buy on newly constructed council properties, keeping them within the social rented pool in the long term.

Tougher Private Rented Sector Regulation: Landlords should prepare for an expansion of the standards piloted in the Northwest. The proposed platform supports a national rollout of the Good Landlord Charter, which already covers half of rental households (over 234,000 properties) in Greater Manchester. It also signals a strict “three strikes” policy for non-compliant landlords, building on a mayoral record that delivered a 43% increase in housing enforcement fines, returning £1.47m to local enforcement teams.

Taxation & Infrastructure Integration: The anticipated leadership champions structural shifts, linking infrastructure directly with housing delivery to unlock complex sites. This approach is backed by regional data showing that targeted infrastructure investment helped drive a 63% increase in local house prices over the past decade, significantly outperforming London’s 7% growth. Long-term, there is also interest in replacing Council Tax and Stamp Duty with a Land Value Tax or a Proportional Property Tax to address regional disparities.

🚧 Navigating the Transition…

Industry leaders are watching closely to see how the next administration intends to balance these interventionist policies with the urgent need to restore market confidence and unlock stalled private capital across the sector.

For Developers, Main Contractors and Housing Associations alike, these complex strategies require resilient leadership. Whether navigating planning devolution or adapting to stricter regional regulations, securing the right expertise at the helm remains paramount to maintaining operational momentum.

From board level appointments to middle management hires…