Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram has welcomed a major £400 million housing boost and said he wants the region to be at the forefront of Labour’s council housebuilding revival.
Rotheram said the issue was deeply personal to him, recalling how growing up in a council home gave his family security and stability.
Writing on X, he said:
“Council housing is personal to me. Our one helped my mum give us a stable start in life, without constantly worrying about keeping a roof over our heads.”
He added:
“I want the Liverpool City Region to be at the forefront of the council housebuilding revival.”
The reported £400 million package is intended to help tackle housing pressures across the city region, supporting the construction and delivery of more affordable and social homes.
Rotheram’s intervention comes as the Labour Government puts council and social housing at the centre of its wider housing programme.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner have already announced nearly £10 billion for councils and housing associations as part of the Government’s £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme, with most of the new homes expected to be for social rent.
The approach is designed to reverse decades of declining council housebuilding and provide more families with secure, genuinely affordable homes.
For Rotheram, Liverpool City Region should be one of the places leading that revival.
His comments also reflect Labour’s wider argument that housing policy is not simply about increasing overall supply, but about giving families the security that comes with a stable and affordable home.
With many households facing high private rents, long social housing waiting lists and temporary accommodation, the new investment is intended to give local authorities and housing providers greater capacity to build.
Rotheram said his own experience of council housing demonstrated why that security matters, and why rebuilding the supply of council homes should be a central part of tackling the housing crisis.
The £400 million boost now gives Liverpool City Region an opportunity to turn that ambition into new homes and help place the area at the forefront of Labour’s renewed push for council housebuilding.
