Prime Minister Andy Burnham's multi-billion-pound drive to build tens of thousands of new homes has been branded "woefully inadequate" by a prominent controlled migration campaigner. The Prime Minister on Tuesday announced a £10 billion national funding wave to support over 70,000 homes across England. His package forms part of a wider government strategy aimed at accelerating social and affordable housebuilding.
Criticism from Migration Watch UK
Alp Mehmet, chairman of the independent think-tank Migration Watch UK, said the Prime Minister's approach merely papers over successive governments' failure to control the border. He told Express.co.uk: "The Burnham plan is woefully inadequate. It fails to address the root cause of the problem: mass immigration - 70,000 new homes doesn't even cover population growth driven by immigration.
"Moreover, based on 2021 census occupancy patterns, we estimate that nearly £2 billion of the £10 billion package will end up going towards housing migrants ahead of British families who've waited years for a home.
"Like his predecessor, Andy Burnham seems determined to bulldoze the countryside to paper over a failure to reduce immigration and control the border."
Funding allocations across regions
The comments come as the Government and regional mayors push a major expansion of social and affordable housing. Strategic partners across the north and Midlands have been allocated funding to deliver tens of thousands of homes. Greater Manchester is set to receive £529 million for 4,400 homes, the West Midlands £409 million for 3,200, the North East £445 million for 3,400, West Yorkshire £441 million for 4,000, Liverpool City Region £380 million for 3,100 and South Yorkshire £249 million for 2,200.
Housing campaigners and local government leaders broadly welcomed the shift back towards council and housing association building. Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, described it as "a major vote of confidence in not-for-profit housing associations". Liam Robinson, of the Local Government Association, said councils were ready to deliver but stressed mayors must work closely with local authorities and that councils needed sustained access to preferential borrowing rates.
Reactions from housing and political figures
Sarah Elliott, chief executive of Shelter, said the announcement "puts councils back on the pitch in the fight to end homelessness" after years in which local authorities lost more social homes through Right to Buy than they built. Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan called the number of families stuck on waiting lists "unacceptable" and said he wanted to work with the Prime Minister to deliver a step change in council homes in the capital.
However, the scale of the challenge is stark. The Government is only just over a quarter of the way towards its target of 1.5 million homes in England within five years. Record numbers of families remain in temporary accommodation.
Conservative critics attacked the timing and funding. Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly claimed the money had been "backloaded" beyond the current spending review and this Parliament, "meaning Andy Burnham will never have to pay for it". Sir James called it "a sleight of hand under Labour" and "another unfunded spending commitment", noting that delivery targets stretched as far as 2039 and that fewer homes would be delivered than under previous programmes because social rent is more expensive.
Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Gideon Amos welcomed the reversal of a proposal that would have allowed developers to drop affordable homes from smaller schemes, saying it would have been "devastating for rural communities". Mr Amos also backed giving councils the chance to bid for social housing funds but warned that the care funding crisis in local government meant few authorities would be able to take full advantage.
Underlying political fault-line
Mr Mehmet's intervention cuts to a deeper political fault-line. While ministers and mayors focus on supply, Migration Watch argues that net migration continues to outstrip housebuilding and that a significant share of new social housing will inevitably go to recent arrivals rather than long-standing British applicants. The 70,000 homes cited by Mr Mehmet, he insists, fall short of the additional demand created by immigration alone.
Mr Burnham and other Labour ministers have presented the funding as a long-overdue revival of public housebuilding after years of under-investment. Ministers present it as progress towards ending the housing emergency. Opponents, from the Conservatives to Migration Watch, see a familiar pattern: large sums of public money, ambitious regional targets, and little willingness to confront the demographic pressures that keep demand permanently ahead of supply.
For families still waiting years for a secure home, the announcement offers hope of more bricks and mortar. For critics such as Mr Mehmet, it is another expensive attempt to treat the symptom while the underlying cause – uncontrolled immigration – continues unchecked.
