A newspaper claims that Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham will this week announce that, should he head the party and eventually become prime minister, he will give councils the power to seize landlords’ homes that are deemed to be unfit.
The Sunday Times says Burnham will reveal the strategy in a keynote speech on housing this week, with the compulsory purchase powers given to local authorities in a bid to ‘out-left’ rival leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn.
The newspaper says that in his speech to the Local Government Association on Thursday Burnham will say: “We need the most ambitious house-building programme in half a century. And to make it happen we need the most ambitious plan to devolve power and money to local communities.”
The article claims Burnham will also reveal that as premier he would give councils the right to borrow money to build homes – he estimates this could lead to an extra 48,000 completions per year.
