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Fossil
fuels, utilities and housing: what we know about Andy Burnham’s plans
Incoming
prime minister has set out distinctly leftwing vision while also promising to
be pro-business
Ben Quinn
Political correspondent
Sun 19
Jul 2026 18.00 BST
As an
incoming prime minister promising huge change, one of the strongest criticisms
Andy Burnham has faced so far is that he has failed to provide the details of
what he plans to do.
The new
Labour leader, who will be made prime minister on Monday, has thus far set out
a distinctly leftwing vision, while also pledging to be “pro-business”.
But in
the absence of leadership contest hustings or opportunities for the media to
subject him to probing interviews, there are gaps in what is known about his
plans for government.
Here is
what we do know so far.
1. Public
control of utilities
Burnham
has pledged to take more public control of key utilities such as water, a move
that appears likely to begin with Britain’s largest water company, Thames
Water.
He is
also understood to be considering radical plans that could cut household energy
bills by £130 a year and make running a heat pump cheaper than a gas boiler.
The proposals would change the way household gas is charged and remove some
policy levies from bills, at a cost of £3.2bn a year to the taxpayer.
Thames
Water, which serves 16 million customers and has been on the brink of collapse
for several years, will meanwhile be put into a special form of administration
until a buyer is found, according to the Sunday Times.
Expect
action, too, on transport policy. Burnham has said he would be informed by the
transformation of the Greater Manchester bus network during his time as mayor,
which included taking the system back under public control from private
operators.
2. Drill,
baby, drill
Speculation
is rife that Burnham will announce fresh plans for drilling in the North Sea.
The
Labour leader’s team has not publicly confirmed the details of its North Sea
policies and whether they would involve new exploration licences or “tiebacks”,
where offshore oil and gas fields are connected to already approved production
facilities via pipelines.
In its
2024 manifesto, Labour pledged to honour existing exploration licences but not
issue new ones.
The
Guardian understands that the tieback arrangements would allow new drilling to
take place without technically breaching the manifesto commitment, although any
new activity is likely to anger some backbenchers and climate campaigners.
3.
Sticking with Mahmood’s immigration changes
Even
before his Makerfield byelection victory made him an MP again, Burnham’s allies
had briefed that he would be supporting Shabana Mahmood’s controversial changes
to the immigration system.
On
Monday, and back in the House of Commons, he supported the government’s asylum
changes, voting for legislation that has divided Labour MPs over plans to
tighten the immigration system and reshape the appeals process.
While he
has avoided laying out specific policies in the area in key speeches, he has
said recently that net migration needs to fall further and spoken of how voters
in Makerfield “raised their concerns about immigration”.
4.
Digital ID
Burnham
is expected to scrap Keir Starmer’s plans for digital ID cards in a “reset of
priorities”, redirecting resources earmarked for the scheme towards tackling
the cost of living.
The
proposals were outlined at the weekend in an attempt to distance the incoming
prime minister from unpopular choices made by his predecessor. A petition
opposing the introduction of digital ID cards when it was announced last year
attracted about 3m signatures.
Keir
Starmer first announced the digital ID scheme last September, as part of a
strategy to combat illegal working. It was to be introduced by 2029.
5.
Scrapping the Department for Science, but appointing a minister for AI
Burnham’s
team have asked officials to draw up plans to abolish the Department for
Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as part of a wider Whitehall
shake-up.
However,
while the plans have triggered an angry backlash from MPs, Whitehall officials
and others, a new cabinet on Monday is expected to include a minister for
artificial intelligence for the first time.
The
proposals in relation to the DSIT would hand over much of science and
technology policy to a more powerful business department, to be led by the
chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds.
6.
Grasping the social care ‘nettle’
The
prime-minister-in-waiting highlighted fixing social care as a priority, vowing
last week to “grasp the nettle” of adult social care reform.
Burnham
first tried to change the social care system when he was Labour’s health
secretary in 2009. At the time, he proposed a levy on estates to pay for
universal social care, but he has since talked about replacing inheritance tax
with a progressive “care levy” to fund a national care service.
Speaking
to the Guardian on the campaign trail last month, he said: “I personally would
look at all of the kind of implications of that in relation to inheritance tax
and care charges and everything. I wouldn’t flinch from it.”
7.
Council house building
Burnham
has said he wants the government led by him to “oversee the biggest council
house building programme since the postwar period”.
The
challenge is a major one, the scale of which is seemingly not lost on Burnham,
who linked the loss of almost 1.5m council homes since the 1980s to the number
of families on social housing waiting lists nationwide rising to a similar
level.
In a hint
of other plans, he has also said that high costs are having a “ruinous impact”
on the government finances amid record levels of taxpayer support allocated to
housing, much of which flows to private landlords.
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