Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged to tackle the issues politicians “usually avoid” in his first Labour Party conference speech as leader. He confirmed plans for free social care in England, promised measures on youth unemployment and set out proposals for public control of utilities.
Here are the key points from his Tuesday address in Liverpool.
Housing and leasehold reform
Mr Burnham confirmed plans to open up home ownership “to those not backed by the bank of mum and dad” by reducing the size of the deposit needed. He also pledged to introduce a Bill before Christmas for “long overdue” leasehold reform, telling leaseholders that “the days of you being squeezed for every penny are coming to an end”.
Councils will be given the power to take over poor quality homes if landlords refuse to improve them, he said, adding: “We don’t let people sell food which damages health, so why allow it with homes? From now on, we won’t.”
Public control of utilities
Mr Burnham vowed to strengthen public control of the water system with a Bill that will repeal “Margaret Thatcher’s ideological ban on public ownership of water companies”. He said that will “start a 10-year journey to a very different water system”, giving local leaders new powers to hold water companies to account and closing loopholes used to pay big bonuses.
The Labour leader described the water industry as a “symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain” in which “shareholders never lose and the public never win, from which some have syphoned out easy money while the public picked up the bill for the sewage in our seas”.
Great British Grid and social care
Mr Burnham announced a new publicly-owned “Great British Grid” that will “challenge the private sector operators” to “increase competition, drive down costs and speed up delivery”. The new body being set up under the Great British Energy umbrella should make it easier to get connections to the energy grid, in a bid to address one of the issues blamed for slowing economic growth and pushing up costs. It will be the first publicly-owned player in electricity networks since privatisation under Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Burnham vowed to build a “National Care Service” which will be “free at the point of use” and impose no charges on the basic state pension, in what he described as a “landmark policy as significant as the creation of the NHS itself”. He said it will be “a person-centred, high-quality” care service where “everyone contributes and everyone is covered” and care “is about people not profit”, does not erode savings and gives “proper recognition” to care workers.
The Government will start laying the ground now for the service and introduce it in the next Parliament. The Prime Minister said: “I accept I may pay a political price. But someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off.” He added that it “will be fully funded, and not through borrowing”.
Triple lock revamp
Mr Burnham announced his social care overhaul will be paid for by changes to the pensions triple lock, which currently guarantees that pensions will rise in line with inflation, 2.5% or average earnings, whichever is the largest increase. He said he would honour the promise in the 2024 Labour manifesto to keep the triple lock unchanged throughout this Parliament.
He continued: “In April 2030 we will adjust it. The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%. And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation. But this change will generate significant savings which we will use to build up our National Care Service.”
