Key facts
- UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham aims to reverse policies from the Thatcher era.
- Burnham announced plans to end the right to buy for future council tenants.
- He intends to reintroduce public ownership of water companies.
- Burnham stated his plan is to "make a break with the direction of the past 40 years".
- The Prime Minister plans to publish a decade-long strategy to increase state control over basic services.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has outlined a political agenda aimed at dismantling the legacy of former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, signaling a significant shift towards the left. Burnham stated his intention to "make a break with the direction of the past 40 years" and put Britain on a new path.
In a speech at Labour's annual conference, Burnham announced that future council tenants will lose the right to buy their homes. He also pledged to scrap legislation that previously prevented the government from nationalizing private firms. Under the new proposals, residents in new council homes will be barred from purchasing them, and councils may take over empty homes owned by private landlords, particularly if they are in poor condition. Existing council tenants will retain their right to buy.
Burnham criticized the privatization of public services in the 1980s, citing water, transport, and care services as examples of areas that were "broken up and sold off." He vowed to end what he described as Margaret Thatcher’s “ideological ban” on public ownership of water companies. The Prime Minister indicated that a comprehensive plan for Britain would be published later in the year, detailing how the government intends to increase state control over essential services over the next decade.