Housing 2024: Give train stations to councils so housing can be built around them, Burnham says

“That’s a simple thing you can do, and these are the kind of wins that the government – if it is to be a Labour government – needs to get into really quickly.

“You just transfer that asset to us, and we will then use it, build on it, and some of the proceeds will come back into improving the asset, the station.”

Mr Burnham, who was re-elected as Greater Manchester mayor in May, said that he supported planning reform to boost housing supply but cautioned that it “doesn’t necessarily deliver massive wins very quickly”.

“One policy that I think could do that,” he continued, is if the Treasury agreed to release public land without “always getting full market value for it”.

There is “loads of land” in Greater Manchester owned by the NHS, Network Rail and the Department for Work and Pensions, he explained, and yet “the departments don’t sell it” or if they do, they demand too high a price that affects viability.

Mr Burnham promised to deliver 10,000 new council homes in his re-election campaign. He said he has asked the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to set up a ‘housing first unit’ and said he would expand the mayoral development corporation model currently being used in Stockport to other parts of the region, including Bolton.

In the discussion, the mayor repeated his call for the Right to Buy to be suspended on new build council homes and said there was a “strong argument” for rent controls, or a framework for rent increases.

He also supported the Labour Party’s manifesto promise for new towns, but said they “can’t be the only show in town” and that regenerating existing areas such as Stockport was “definitely the way to go”.

“If you really want to get going on housing, it means changing some of that thinking,” he stated.