Burnham vows to tackle Britain's deepest issues, appeals for time

Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged on ‌Tuesday ​to revive Britain by tackling its deepest problems such as social care, housing and utilities — issues, he conceded, would take time to fix in what he described as an "honest" speech to the nation. In an emotional address to his Labour Party when he imagined the country his father, who died this month, ‌would want to see, Burnham set out his long-term vision, promising greater public control of utilities, reform of the so-called pensions triple lock and the construction of more social housing.

Yet, he said he could only start the groundwork for resolving his priorities, constrained in the near term by stretched public finances and the previous government's tax pledges. Any results would only come after the next national election, due by mid-2029, and some in the next 10 ‌years. For the time being, he asked the party at its annual conference in the northwestern city of Liverpool to keep the faith.

BURNHAM SPEAKS OF RESPONSIBLE CHOICES Walking on the stage to "All Together Now" ‌by Liverpool band The Farm, Burnham said he had ignored his first instinct to give "the usual tub-thumping conference speech", instead deciding to offer "a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation".

It was decidedly aimed at the long term, beyond the expected 2029 election, with Burnham also promising to look at a plan to change Britain's first-past-the-post voting system and to ask people if he could build a consensus around a better future post-Brexit relationship with the European Union. Promising also to boost social housing, ⁠get more ​of the around 1 million young people in unemployment back ⁠into work, tackle the social care crisis and possibly to bring water companies under public control, it was an ambitious plan to deal with the big problems he said were holding Britain back.

Yet he conceded that financial constraints curtailed what he could do ⁠in the short term, saying he had tried to offer people some immediate "breathing space" by capping bus fares and removing value added tax from electricity bills with limited funds. "I hope you will see it as a sign, a strong one, ​of our intent to get your bills and fares down as you wait for the bigger changes to come," he said.

"I would love to go quickly, but I have to be honest ⁠about what the country can afford. I will stick to our fiscal rules to get borrowing and debt down. The approach I am outlining today is the responsible one." EMOTIONAL OVER CARE SERVICE

On housing, he promised to prioritise the building of social housing and empower local ⁠councils ​to seize unoccupied private homes, while on youth employment, he promised to create a more balanced education system for academic and technical routes. He promised to repeal a ban on the public ownership of water companies, saying people should no longer have to pay to clean up private firms' failings, when sewage is routinely dumped into the country's rivers and seas — something that would require passing legislation and could take some time.

But ⁠it was on social care, where his passion came through after his father died in a care home not long after Burnham became prime minister. He said he planned to set up a National ⁠Care Service funded by altering the triple lock — which guarantees ⁠a state pension rise each year by whichever is highest among inflation, wage growth or 2.5%.

And it was when Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade became emotional as he spelt out his vision for Britain, something he said his father had also believed in. "So I'm going to use this job to build ‌the kind of Britain my dad ‌wanted to see," he said, with tears in his eyes.