Council housing – another brick in the wall?
Posted on: 10 July, 2026
By Jason Phelps
Senior lecturer, School of the Built Environment
On Monday 29 June, the MP for Makerfield, Andy Burnham, set out his vision – should he get the keys to No. 10. One of his proposals is the country’s biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period. It is his enthusiasm for council housing that resonated with me as I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in a council house. So, why a launch of council housing in 2026? Why did it stop?
Council housing: A history lesson
The idea of council housing stretches as far back just after World War I to 1919. Prior to this, housing had been completed by private developers, but there was a huge inconsistency in the level of quality and delivery produced. Furthermore, there was a larger issue developing in the poorest neighbourhoods (slum estates) which were defined by severe overcrowding and a lack of sanitation, which fuelled rampant diseases. The overcrowding had been due to the huge increase of industrialisation in many cities across the country.
Due to these health issues, the Prime Minister David Lloyd George stated that the Government would step in and provide “homes fit for heroes”. Therefore, the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 was passed. This is also known as the Addison Act, named after the Minister of Health, Christopher Addison, who established the principle of state-funded council housing, whereby each local council had a responsibility to build high-quality, affordable homes to keep a promise to returning soldiers. The aim was to provide subsidies to local authorities to fund the construction of 500,000 within three years.
Unfortunately, the subsidies were withdrawn in 1922 under the Geddes Axe austerity programme, and only 213,000 homes were completed under the 1919 Act. Although funding had come to an end, the seed had been sown. During the following 20 years, there were further acts of Parliament with a specific focus on removing the slums and incentivising local councils to build houses.
Building boom: 1946 – 1979
The years following World War II proved to be the boom years for council housing. This was helped by the introduction of the New Towns Act 1946, which gave the Government new powers to designate large areas of land to direct urban growth into new towns. In the 35 years following the war, over 4.4 million council houses had been built, peaking at 200,000 in 1954.
By the 1970s, council housing was the central pillar of the UK’s welfare state, with 30% of the population living in them. It all seemed to be going well with council housing production during the 1970s, but then the status quo changed when Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party was voted into Government in 1979.
Thatcher years: 1980s
Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party sought to promote a “property-owning democracy” and introduced the Housing Act 1980, which provided over five million council tenants the ‘Right to Buy’ their own home at discounted rates (33% for houses, rising to 50% after long tenancies, and up to 70% for flats). The intention was to move people away from collective provision and towards individual ownership.
The ‘Right to Buy’ impacted on our family as my parents took advantage of the situation (who wouldn’t with the discounts available?) and purchased our end-of-terrace, three-bedroomed house. For the first time in their lives, my parents had the security of always having a roof over their head.
This policy proved extremely popular, with 1.9 million council homes sold at an average discount of 44% of market value. This prompted a surge in home ownership from 55% in 1980 to a peak of 71% in 2003.
However, the popularity of buying council houses came at the expense of council houses themselves. Crucially, another part of the Act meant that local councils were not permitted to use most of the sales receipts to reinvest into new social housing. This meant that housing stock was not replaced at the pace of existing stock being sold.
You could say that at this moment, social housebuilding had begun to decrease. This is shown by the number of people living in rented council housing from 30% in 1979 to 17% in 2015. Indeed in 2026, this figure is around 7% of Britons living in council housing.
A structural shift
The decline in the popularity of council housing became a structural shift. Council housing became harder to access and was associated with the most vulnerable of society. Furthermore, the deregulation of the private rental market (The Housing Act 1988) expanded landlordism, which further reduced the appeal of council housing.
The ‘Right to Buy’ didn’t just reduce the number of council houses available, it transformed their role in the housing system. Indeed, this policy enabled my parents to get on the property ladder and, in 1998, sold their ex-council house for a considerable sum, which enabled them to buy a detached house on a new estate.
There were many more instances like this throughout the country, and there were other council houses that had been purchased for the private rental market, and overnight, speculative landlords were born. Some 40% of homes sold under the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme are now owned by private landlords and rented out at levels far above the council rents homeowners used to pay. This level is as high as 50% in some London boroughs.
Paradoxically, the homes that were once built as a public asset for affordable renting suddenly became profit-generating private investments, which banks were willing to help with their buy-to-rent mortgages.
The popularity of council homes was therefore connected to availability – when there were council homes, they were popular; when the supply of council homes dwindled, they came to be seen as a scarce resource strictly reserved for those whose need was more acute, and no longer mainstream.
Andy Burnham’s vision
In the 2024 Labour manifesto there was a commitment to build 1.5 million new houses over the first parliament. The Government have also changed the rules to allow councils and housing associations to retain 100% of the ‘Right to Buy’ proceeds. In March 2026 the Chancellor announced an additional £2 billion to facilitate the construction of 18,000 social and affordable housing.
With this manifesto pledge in mind, Andy Burnham has placed council housing at the centre of his political agenda. His pledge is to oversee the biggest council house-building programme since the post war period. His argument is quite simple:
“If you don’t give people a good home, what chance have they got of having a good life? What chance of making the health service sustainable, if people are not living in good accommodation, or getting a good education for kids. Everything starts with a good home….”
He is essentially rewinding the clock back to pre-1970s to restore council housing as a mainstream and desirable option instead of a last resort.
The focus on building council houses and not providing additional money to social housing providers is a seismic shift in how Andy Burnham sees housing as central to growth and wellbeing of the country. The plan would see approximately 139,000 council-house completions per year, a huge leap from the current 2,000. This is not a reversal of the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme, it is a reimagining of the state’s role in housing.
A large-scale, high-quality council housebuilding programme would normalise social renting again, making it an affordable option for many people – especially the younger generation, who would make it a highly attractive offering.
The homes would, of course, be built to current Building Regulation standards, which far exceed pre-1970s dwellings, and will provide efficient heating and secure housing for tenants.
Conclusion
Council housing declined in popularity during the 1980s, not because there was no demand, but because the Conservative government’s policy of ‘Right to Buy’ fundamentally reshaped the housing system. Millions of homes were sold, and few were replaced, meaning that council homes became a scarce commodity.
Andy Burnham’s proposed large-scale council-housebuilding programme shifts the balance, enabling long-term public ownership with the social value of secure housing. His aim is to place, and restore, council housing as a central popular component of Britain’s housing landscape.
However, there are challenges. We currently have a shortage of skills, both labour and professional capabilities, and there is the issue of cost. To build a new three-bedroom, semi-detached property is around £200,000, with planning and professional fees. To deliver a postwar-scale building programme would require tens of billions of pounds, and against an uncertain economic picture, will this money be found?
Whether this vision will succeed depends upon political will, economic capacity and public support. But, from my own personal experience of growing up in a council house and the opportunities that it provided for me and my family, I think that in the current economic state that the country finds itself in, it is the right path to proceed.
Yes, it is an ambitious and costly vision, which will need to be managed correctly at local levels, but the roots for council housing were laid in post-World War II and provided much-needed housing, which is where we find ourselves today.
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