The challenges lying in wait for Burnham | Letters

We are told that regional devolution is the key to the UK’s growth and prosperity (Burnham sets out vision to transform Britain and fix ‘broken’ system, 29 June). But what are “regions”? Like nations, they have an objective reality (generated by geography, communications and economic activity) while also acquiring subjective allegiances (the inhabitants’ sense of belonging). In both cases, those allegiances can serve positive, progressive causes, or they can be exploited for narrow political advantage. George Orwell contrasted wholesome patriotism with chauvinist nationalism.

Similarly, “regionalism” can connote enlightened programmes of reform and regeneration (eg Liverpool), or it can serve the interests of political opportunists and their cronies (eg Teesside). Either way, regionalism cannot buck basic socioeconomic trends that sweep across the whole country, affecting some parts more than others: deindustrialisation, low investment and productivity, and inadequate public services (notably health and education).

Addressing these is a national challenge requiring long-term strategies, in which any government is but one player among many. Quick fixes – whether grandiose (Brexit) or trivial (“No 10 North”) – are useless. Finally, like nationalism, regionalism can also legitimise know-nothing prejudice and rancour, the ensuing conflicts occurring not in the fractious international community, but the fissile nation-state, in our case the Disunited Kingdom.
Alan Knight
Emeritus professor, St Antony’s College, Oxford

There is a clear and powerful case for massively boosting the building of social homes – 134,000 households, comprising 350,000 people, are in temporary accommodation and 1.3m households are on housing waiting lists. The housing benefit bill has rocketed to more than £36bn. The challenge, however, is huge.

In the heyday of council house building in the 1960s, around 400,000 houses were being built annually, in contrast to just over 12,000 in 2025. Given public funding constraints and labour shortages in the construction industry, how can the country deliver “the biggest council housing building programme since the postwar period”?

Substantial borrowing will be required, but it needs to be part of credible economic growth and fiscal strategies that business has confidence in and is acceptable to the bond markets. There may also be a need to enable councils to establish non-profit-making companies that build houses for rent and sale, and can repay commercial or government-backed loans from their net income.
Chris Pratt
Leeds

As Pippa Crerar rightly says, Andy Burnham “remains untested in another crucial area where many MPs felt Starmer had failed: his political judgment” (Burnham’s vibe shift gives Labour one more chance but voters also need hope, 29 June). It doesn’t really matter whether the decisions that Burnham makes are made in Manchester or Downing Street if they don’t deliver the change in government policy that voters crave, and his silence on certain subjects and unwillingness to face questions from the media are worrying.

Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policies were “un-British” – as Angela Rayner said – when our prime minister wore “dark formal suits and polished shoes”, and remains so now. Similarly, support for a rogue ally which, according to the UN’s independent international commission of inquiry, continues to “commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza” (Report, 23 June), and which “dozens of Israelis from the security, political and cultural elite” have threatened legal action against over its “support for Jewish terrorism” (Report, 24 June), is appalling, regardless of whether the announcement is made in “a dark T-shirt” or not.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool