UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced a new "Your First Home" scheme aimed at helping first-time buyers who lack family financial support, offering a 20% equity loan on new-build properties with a minimum 2.5% deposit, to be formally unveiled at the upcoming budget. Speaking to the Guardian on the eve of Labour's annual conference in Liverpool, Burnham pledged to pursue radical policy changes despite constrained public finances, citing global economic pressures including the Iran conflict as factors limiting the government's room for manoeuvre. The prime minister also confirmed plans to reform social care, tackle youth unemployment, and update rules on empty-home management orders — signalling that the conference will set the tone for an ambitious legislative programme ahead of the 2029 general election.
Mosaic News
Burnham unveils help-to-buy revival and reform agenda ahead of Labour conference[Updated]
Delivering his first conference speech as leader in Liverpool on Tuesday, Burnham set out plans for a free National Care Service for England, modelled on the NHS and funded in part by changing the state pension formula from 2030, when increases would be capped at the lower of inflation or 2.5%, rather than the current link to earnings. He also promised greater public control over housing, water and energy, reversing decades of privatisation, and said he would soon set out options for the UK's long-term relationship with the European Union, ten years after the Brexit vote, and seek consensus around one of them. Burnham, who lost his father to Alzheimer's earlier this month, paused to compose himself while speaking about him, and acknowledged he might "pay a political price" for the care reforms.