Can Andy Burnham solve the UK's housing crisis?

Millions of people in the UK face unaffordable rents, long waits for social housing, or being priced out of the market. The average house price in England was £300,000 last year, almost eight times average earnings. The Labour government pledged to build 1.5 million new homes but is already falling behind. Andy Burnham, credited with a building boom in Manchester as mayor, promises the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period; however, council house construction has collapsed from nearly 200,000 per year in the 1950s to just 1,970 in 2025.