Same city, different atmosphere

Months after one of its worst local election results in living memory, Labour’s conference was more upbeat than it has been in years.

What a difference four months make. In May, Labour suffered major – and in some cases historic – defeats across England, Scotland and Wales, which left the party reeling and hastened the departure of Sir Keir Starmer from Number 10, just two years after the landslide victory in the 2024 general election.

The new Prime Minister has wasted no time in turning the page on the Starmer era. A change in communication style and dynamism was observed almost immediately in the summer but conference has seen the first major new policy announcements – on housing, care & pensions, EU relations and more. The political priorities – and likely battlegrounds – of the coming years are taking shape.

With Labour now consistently leading the polls (if only marginally) and a seemingly divided opposition on the right, the mood in the conference was one of cautious optimism. Labour activists and politicians feel that under new leadership the party has at the very least earned a second hearing from the public. In extremely challenging circumstances financially and geopolitically, the path to success for the Government is narrow, but the sense of doom has lifted.

‘Your First Home’ – a shot in the arm?

The Government’s support for first-time buyers has received a warm welcome from the sector, in principle. The devil will be in the details.

After focusing for two years on the ‘supply side’, particularly in terms of planning reform, ‘Your First Home’ marks the Government’s first major demand-side intervention in the housing market.

By offering Government-backed, interest-free equity loans of up to 20% to eligible first-time buyers of new build homes putting down deposits as low as 2.5%, the Government hopes to provide much-needed relief to a market that has been struggling for several years and to make the dream of homeownership a reality, particularly for younger individuals and families who have been locked out by high prices, mortgage rates and deposit requirements. The announcement, made on the eve of conference, has prompted significant increases in housebuilders’ share prices over recent days.

The principle is not a new one. The model replicates the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme operated by the previous Conservative Government – and criticised, including by the Labour opposition at the time, for impacts on house prices (and housebuilders’ margins), even as it generated additional revenue for the Treasury and supported transactions.

The current state of the market, particularly in London and other ‘high-value’ areas, is such that intervention may have seemed unavoidable to ministers. Chris Curtis MP, former Co-Chair of the Labour Growth Group and a prominent ‘YIMBY’ within the Parliamentary Labour Party, described the effective reintroduction of Help to Buy as a ‘point of failure’ but did not question its necessity, while also calling for an end to the ‘boom and bust’ cycle of housebuilding.

At fringe sessions, housebuilders welcomed the announcement as a vital boost for the market, while noting that they awaited the full detail of the scheme in the Autumn Budget. This will be crucial, as income thresholds and property price caps will determine just how effective and equitable the scheme might be. The Government will also need to clarify the precise scope of developer contributions to the scheme.

Planning: a lot done, a lot still to do

Politicians and industry representatives alike reflected on the progress the Government has made on planning reform but remain clear-eyed about the obstacles that remain in the system.

Several of the housing-related fringe sessions at conference boiled down to the same basic question, one that has been asked since Labour came to power: how can ambition on housing be translated into effective delivery? The recently-released housing figures tell their own story: with 437,900 homes estimated to have been delivered between July 2024 and September 2026, the Government’s ambition of building 1.5 million homes by 2029 appears dead in the water.

The progress made on planning reform was acknowledged by industry attendees, who welcomed the streamlining measures introduced within the Planning and Infrastructure Act, as well as changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. At the strategic level, Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook was lauded as a minister who knows his brief and has provided welcome consistency in approach, in part simply by remaining in the job for longer than any of his recent predecessors.

The Government’s recent changes to the scheme of delegation for planning committees compel local authorities to leave decision-making on more ‘minor’ schemes to officers and restrict the ability of councillors to ‘call in’ applications for committee determination. This was endorsed by Brighton and Hove Leader Cllr Bella Sankey, who suggested that some objectors to development had previously felt an ‘entitlement’ to having their concerns prioritised over housing needs.

However, Oxford City Council’s Cllr Susan Brown, herself a strong proponent of housing and growth, shared an alternative view, suggesting that limiting committees’ scope might make it more difficult for councillors to secure local buy-in on development. The tension between pro-growth instincts and local political considerations in planning remains, underscoring the importance of good engagement irrespective of the scale of development.

Much time was spent discussing what more needs to be done to help clear the remaining obstacles within the planning system and addressing the often-insurmountable cost – in time and money – of development. Ideas discussed included an expansion of national development management policies and a standardised template for Section 106 agreements, to help provide greater certainty from the outset for authorities and developers alike.

The push for council housing – and 178,000 reasons why

Both the Government and local authority leaders want to deliver more council housing. Translating ambitions into delivery will require money and flexibility.

Discussions on housing at the 2025 conference were marked by a high-profile YIMBY message, backing development in the face of objections. Then-Housing Secretary Steve Reed proudly sported a ‘Build Baby Build’ cap. The Government’s pro-development stance has not shifted but discussions this year saw the focus shift to the ‘moral case’ for development and the importance of educating the public on the scale of the housing crisis and what it means.

Last year saw the launch of the ‘165,000 Reasons’ campaign, which seeks to address the growing crisis of children growing up in temporary accommodation in England. This year, the number is closer to 180,000. The crippling financial burden that temporary accommodation places on so many local authorities has been well-documented. At conference, politicians and figures from the sector repeatedly highlighted the more intangible but arguably far more significant cost to society, in terms of health impacts, reduced quality of life and loss of opportunities for a generation of young people without a permanent home.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, there was strong support among attendees both for the Prime Minister’s early focus on homelessness and for his ambition to deliver a significant expansion of council housebuilding, hailed by Government figures from Housing Secretary Angela Rayner downward. Members were clear-eyed about what this will require in practice: more money from Government, more flexibility for councils on borrowing and spending for housebuilding and effective partnerships with the sector.

The Government’s announcement of an expansion of councils’ power to bring long-vacant buy-to-let properties into productive use – by reducing the minimum period of vacancy required for an Empty Dwelling Management Order from two years to six months – seeks to address a related issue often highlighted by objectors to development and political opponents. It remains to be seen whether authorities are able to fully take advantage of their new powers and what the impacts will be on the rental market.

Devolution in the spotlight

Unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister’s political USP was the subject of much discussion. The saga of Local Government Reorganisation provided an awkward backdrop.

The Prime Minister came to power 10 weeks ago promising ‘good growth in every postcode’. No. 10 North followed soon after, as did a Cabinet policy statement on ‘rewiring the state’, to transfer significant powers – and crucially, tax revenue – from Whitehall to local leaders across the country.

Devolution was unsurprisingly a hot topic at several fringe sessions, which sought to explore what ‘Manchesterism’ on a nationwide scale could look like and how a new tier of strategic ‘regional’ government can thrive across vast area of England that have not known it to date.

How far to go on devolution was itself a topic of debate. Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East since 2024, noted that she personally favoured a ‘federalised’ UK in the long-term, with authorities as agents in their own right, rather than simply recipients of wealth and autonomy ‘granted’ to them from the centre. Giving the London perspective Deputy Mayor Howard Dawber suggested that income tax devolution could unlock long-delayed major infrastructure projects, including the Bakerloo Line Extension, the West London Orbital and Crossrail 2.

Meanwhile, Mark Rogers, Chief Executive of the emerging Sussex and Brighton Strategic Authority, noted the need to develop a model of growth that accommodates different kinds of economies, besides urban centres. Where the ‘agglomeration’ model – massing or clustering of economic activity – has been favoured so far in city regions, he suggested that areas including his own would benefit from a greater emphasis on a ‘polycentric’ approach, in which smaller or more rural communities do not feel left out. The forthcoming ‘prosperity strategy’ for Sussex and Brighton, expected to be published in November, is likely to reflect this philosophy.

The coming months will test the scale of the Government’s ambitions on devolution, as ministers consider how much control – and money – they are willing to transfer and how quickly. The Government’s recently-announced ‘pause’ on Local Government Reorganisation cuts against the wider sense of urgency on the issue and has frustrated affected local authorities, including several Labour-controlled ones. Speaking for the Government, Jim McMahon MP sought to reassure Labour councillors that their efforts to date in planning for LGR have not been taken for granted.

What next?

The Holborn and St Pancras by-election on 8^th October has slipped off the political radar over recent weeks but will be the first major electoral test for Burnham’s Labour in London. Any celebrations (or fallout) will soon be overtaken by speculation about the Autumn Budget on 28^th October. Given the severe financial constraints the Government is confronting, difficult decisions on tax and spending are inevitable. The detail on the ‘Your First Home’ scheme will be closely scrutinised across the sector.