Andy Burnham entered Downing Street on 20 July 2026 with housing and infrastructure at the centre of his domestic programme. The commitments he has made since June include the largest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period, a place-based model for infrastructure delivery, reindustrialisation through public procurement, and the extension of devolution powers to regional and local bodies. The government's Rewiring the State programme provides more detail on how that regional control is expected to work.
Together, these changes add up to a significant shift in where public sector construction and professional services work will be shaped, funded and procured over the coming decade. For suppliers across construction, consultancy, engineering, facilities management, transport and professional services, the question is not whether this creates opportunity. It is how to position for it, and how quickly it will translate from political commitment into funded contracts.
The council housebuilding programme
Burnham has pledged to deliver the biggest council housebuilding programme since the Second World War, with the programme to be overseen by Number 10 North, using vacant public land to reduce costs and bringing higher density residential development to towns across the UK.
Funding & market mechanics
The funding platform already exists. The government has a £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme running from 2026 to 2036, with at least 60% of programme homes intended for social rent, giving Burnham a substantial base from which councils and registered providers can develop long-term programmes. Any ambition that exceeds the existing programme will require additional capital or improved output per pound already committed.
The National Federation of Builders has welcomed the commitment, saying SME housebuilders and regional contractors will be ready to deliver, and calling for planning reform to be supercharged and wholesale if the council housing ambition becomes reality.
Supply chain scope
For suppliers, the opportunity is broad:
- A serious council programme creates work across land remediation, civils, structural frames, MEP, fire safety, façades, roofing, landscaping and long-term maintenance.
- The strongest commercial benefit could be continuity: councils and regional bodies able to package multiple sites into multi-year programmes may sustain more stable investment in people, plant and local supply chains than isolated one-off schemes.
However, a nominal allocation without land ownership, surveys, planning strategy, utility capacity, realistic cost plans and a clear building control route is funding potential, not workload. Suppliers should monitor pipeline development carefully rather than assuming political commitment translates quickly into live procurement.
Infrastructure, devolution and place-based delivery
Burnham's approach is built around stronger regional decision-making. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 already gives mayoral strategic authorities wider functions across transport, local infrastructure, skills, housing, strategic planning, economic development and regeneration. Mayors can receive additional planning powers, produce Local Growth Plans and assemble investment pipelines.
The government's Rewiring the State programme has now added much more detail to that approach. Mayors are set to receive greater control over housing, local transport, innovation and energy, while the government has adopted a wider principle of “devolving by default” when deciding where public functions should sit.
Housing is one of the areas where the new devolution plans could have the clearest impact. The government intends to devolve more of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme to mayors and strengthen public development corporations as vehicles for local housing and infrastructure development. In transport, established mayoral areas will also have greater freedom to progress locally funded schemes without Whitehall approval, with the relevant approval threshold immediately increasing to £500 million.
The practical consequence for suppliers is that the organisations shaping future demand will increasingly be regional rather than central. Mayoral combined authorities, regional transport bodies, development corporations and local growth institutions will play a growing role in deciding what gets procured, how it gets specified and what outcomes buyers prioritise.
Suppliers who monitor Local Growth Plans, maintain relationships with combined authorities in relevant regions, and understand regional investment priorities before they appear as published tenders will be better placed than those who rely solely on national portals.
The construction benefit of Burnham's devolution model would come from aligning housing sites with local transport plans, growth areas, skills budgets and infrastructure investment. This could prove particularly valuable in brownfield locations where viability depends on public intervention across several systems at once.
The risk, as analysts have noted, is that Whitehall delay is replaced by local capacity delay, and that stronger powers are transferred without enough experienced planning, engineering, procurement and project management capability in regional bodies to use them effectively.
Utilities and essential services
Burnham has committed to putting life's essentials back under stronger public control, with water, energy and transport specifically in scope. For suppliers, the ownership argument is secondary. The decisive issue is whether reform creates stable capital plans, credible clients and investment that reaches procurement.
Opportunities by sector |
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💧 Water |
Treatment works, reservoirs, sewage networks, flood resilience and monitoring systems |
⚡ Energy |
Generation, grid upgrades, substations, storage, heat networks and domestic retrofit |
🚆 Transport |
Depots, charging systems, bus and rail infrastructure and station-led regeneration |
The existing infrastructure pipeline already contains 734 planned projects representing approximately £718bn of public and private investment over the next decade. Burnham's test is whether the government can improve certainty, sequencing and regional coordination across that inherited pipeline. For suppliers, this means monitoring utility programme decisions closely, particularly regulatory settlements and departmental capital allocations, since these will determine when political ambition becomes contracted work.
Reindustrialisation and procurement
Burnham's reindustrialisation agenda connects directly to procurement. PPN 026 will require central government buyers to place substantially more weight on jobs and skills in larger contracts from January 2027. For infrastructure suppliers, that strengthens the connection between public investment, workforce development and regional economic impact.
There's also a wider commitment to support British-based suppliers and protect strategic capability in steel, defence, energy, food and manufacturing. The physical requirements could include new factories, fabrication halls, defence estates, research campuses, ports and logistics infrastructure alongside supporting power and transport connections.
This sits within an already-moving procurement environment. The national security exemption under the Procurement Act 2023 has already been formally directed at critical sectors including steel, shipbuilding, AI and energy infrastructure through PPN 025. Burnham's reindustrialisation agenda is likely to deepen that direction rather than redirect it.
For suppliers in industrial construction and engineering, the key question is whether public demand will be consistent enough to justify investment in UK capacity. Transparent evaluation criteria, proportionate evidence requirements and enough lead time for suppliers to establish compliant local supply chains will be essential if the social value and buying British commitments are to generate genuine industrial benefit rather than administrative burden.
Skills, apprenticeships and bid strategy
Technical education and apprenticeships run through every strand of Burnham's programme. Under PPN 026, jobs and skills will form the core of the revised Social Value Model, with apprenticeships, work placements, training and routes into employment all included within the new criteria.
This is particularly relevant to construction, where CITB estimates that UK construction needs an average of 41,200 additional workers each year between 2026 and 2030. Suppliers bidding for major central government contracts will need to connect social value commitments to real workforce needs and project programmes, particularly once the minimum weighting rises to 20% on contracts worth £5 million or more.
Our guidance on answering social value tender questions covers how to structure this evidence effectively. The key shift under Burnham's model is that apprenticeship and placement commitments should be linked to real project programmes and regional delivery plans, not inserted as contract promises that cannot be sustained.
What suppliers should watch and do now
Burnham's programme includes more detail on how powers will be devolved, although many major commitments still lack project-level budgets, procurement timetables and confirmed pipelines. The 10-year national plan is expected later in 2026, and the clearest early signal of delivery intent will be whether it contains quantified milestones rather than broad national objectives.
In the meantime, there are practical steps worth taking.
- Review your framework positions: Suppliers in construction, housing, transport, energy and professional services should review whether their current framework positions align with the types of regional and council-led work likely to emerge. Our guidance on SME spend targets is relevant here. Burnham's agenda should create more accessible routes to market for smaller suppliers, but only if they are visible on the frameworks that regional buyers will use.
- Audit your social value evidence: Work placements, apprenticeships and local employment are the specific vehicles Burnham has named for social value delivery, and buyers will be scoring these commitments more heavily. Strengthen local case studies, map your regional delivery footprint, and review how your supply chain narrative addresses UK economic contribution.
- Prioritise early market engagement: In a more devolved procurement environment, the policy and investment decisions that shape future tenders are being made in combined authority offices and mayoral growth teams, not only in Whitehall. Suppliers who are in those conversations early will have a clearer view of what buyers actually need, and a better chance of shaping how opportunities are specified.
Thornton & Lowe works with suppliers across construction, infrastructure, professional services and related markets to develop bid strategies and tender responses that reflect current buyer priorities. If you would like to discuss how Burnham's housing and infrastructure agenda might affect your pipeline, get in touch with our team.
