Angela Rayner piled pressure on Rachel Reeves to fund social housing in November’s budget.
Speaking at a fringe event at Labour Party conference, the Deputy PM said there would “hopefully” be cash to fund her promise of “the biggest wave of social housing for a generation” in the spending review. It comes after she refused to set a target for the number of social properties that will be built within Labour’s pledge of 1.5 million new homes by the end of the first term.
“I’ve been honest about not putting a figure on that today, because there’s a lot of moving parts within that,” she told the audience at the event, hosted by housing charity Shelter. “Hopefully at the spending review you’ll see this government is really serious that we’re going to build those houses we desperately need.
“If it wasn’t, then what’s Labour for if we’re not for building safe and secure homes that people need?”
She spoke at the event alongside Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who the Ashton-Under-Lyne MP repeatedly referred to as “my Mayor.”
Mr Burnham has pledged 10,000 new social and affordable homes in Greater Manchester by 2028.
“Bodies like Network Rail, the DWP and the NHS own large amounts of public land. But if they try and dispose of it, sometimes the Treasury makes them get a deal for market value.
His plan is to transfer that land to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and immediately build on it.
“The public benefit that would come from those council homes is huge,” he said.
“Those are the kind of solutions we need.”