Whoever Leads Britain Next Must Focus on Growth, Housing and Opportunity
Neil Louth – Group Executive Director, LRG and CEO, Acorn Group
From my perspective, the question is less about who occupies Number 10 and more about what they do once they get there.
Whether it is Sir Keir Starmer continuing in office, Andy Burnham emerging as a future challenger, or someone else entirely, the next phase of leadership in Britain must focus on growth, housing and opportunity.
The UK remains one of the world’s most attractive places to live, work and invest. Yet too many people feel that getting ahead has become harder than it should be. Businesses are looking for confidence and stability. Families are looking for affordability and security. Young people want to believe that homeownership remains achievable.
Housing sits at the heart of all of these challenges. Britain has a genuine housing shortage. We are not building enough homes and we are certainly not building enough affordable homes. Successive governments have recognised the problem, but delivery has consistently fallen short of what is required.
If we want to improve affordability and create greater opportunity for future generations, we need a planning system that supports development, encourages investment and helps bring forward the homes that communities need. We also need a long-term commitment to increasing housing supply, rather than short-term policy changes that create uncertainty.
At the same time, we must remove the barriers that stop people moving. Stamp Duty has become one of the biggest obstacles to mobility within the housing market. The cost of moving home is simply too high for many households, creating friction throughout the market and preventing transactions that would otherwise take place.
Reforming Stamp Duty would not just benefit buyers and sellers. It would stimulate wider economic activity, support job creation, and generate additional spending across numerous sectors.
We should also revisit how government supports first-time buyers. Future schemes should focus not just on helping people onto the ladder, but on helping them progress through it. A more flexible approach to buyer support could create greater mobility throughout the market and help more people achieve long-term housing security.
Importantly, none of this is about creating a housing boom or driving unsustainable house price growth. The property market does not need overheating: it needs confidence, stability and movement.
A healthy market is one where people can buy, sell and move home when they need to, supported by sensible lending, adequate housing supply and a stable economic environment.
More broadly, I believe the country should be run with the same focus on outcomes that successful businesses apply every day. Identify what is holding people back, fix it, measure the results and focus relentlessly on creating growth and opportunity.
The public understands that difficult economic decisions have to be made. What people want to see in return is a clear plan to improve living standards, create opportunity and build confidence in the future.
Whether Andy Burnham ultimately becomes Prime Minister or not, those should be the priorities for anyone aspiring to lead the country.
The test of leadership is not political rhetoric but whether more homes are built, more people can achieve homeownership, more businesses can grow and more families feel optimistic about the future.
Get those fundamentals right and everything else becomes easier.
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