What Labour's win means for us

THE M.E.N. ANALYSES THE NEW GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES IN SEVEN KEY AREAS FOR OUR REGION

- JOSEPH TIMAN

LABOUR swept to power on Thursday night with a landslide victory.

In the run-up to the election, the M.E.N. spoke to senior Labour Party figures over plans to ‘hit the ground running’ if they were indeed to form the next government.

Several members of Labour’s top team have served as opposition MPs in Greater Manchester.

This includes deputy leader Angela Rayner, the then shadow business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds and the then shadow House of Commons leader Lucy Powell.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says these frontbenchers and other ministers from Greater Manchester will be ‘powerful advocates’ for the cityregion and has promised to work closely with mayor Andy Burnham.

The M.E.N. has looked into the party’s policies on housing, transport, health, devolution, the cost of living, crime and the environment to find out what the new Labour government will mean for Greater Manchester.

HOUSING

Labour has promised to build 1.5m new homes over the next Parliament.

This equals the target set by the Conservatives who have previously promised 300,000 new homes a year – but over the last 10 years the average annual number of new homes was 207,000.

Labour says it would immediately update planning laws and reinstate mandatory housing targets, with plans for a ‘generation’ of new towns across the UK. But the party is yet to say how many homes would be built in each area and where these ‘new towns’ would be.

Last year, Ms Rayner promised the ‘biggest boost in affordable and social housing for a generation’. But, speaking to the M.E.N. in March, the deputy leader could not put a number to it.

She said that Labour would ‘unblock’ funding for housing and ‘free up’ big infrastructure projects that are being held back.

Labour has also said that it will give metro mayors new powers over planning, allowing them to set ‘strategic planning policies’ for their areas.