Policy Connect Reacts to Burnham’s First Conference Speech

This week, Policy Connect attended the Labour Party Conference, where Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivered his first conference speech in office.

Burnham used the speech to set out an ambitious programme of long-term reform across public services, the economy and essential infrastructure. His agenda ranged from social care and youth employment to industrial policy, artificial intelligence (AI), water, housing and electoral reform, with a recurring focus on stronger public control, long-term investment and rebuilding systems he argued are no longer working effectively.

Some of the key announcements included:

• National Care Service: Free at the point of use, fully funded without borrowing; groundwork starts now, with launch in the next Parliament.
• Triple lock: Unchanged this Parliament; from April 2030, pensions rise by at least the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) or 2.5%, and hold value against earnings over time. Savings fund the National Care Service.
• Youth unemployment: Academic and technical pathways from 14, apprenticeships, work placements and faster mental health support, funded through welfare reform. Informed by the Milburn review on young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs), due this autumn.
• Great British Grid: New publicly owned company within Great British Energy to compete with private grid operators and speed up connections.
• VAT on electricity: Cut from 1 October 2026.
• Housing: More social and council housing, new council powers over unused and poor-quality homes, lower deposits for first-time buyers, and a leasehold reform bill before Christmas.
• Water: Bill to repeal the ban on public ownership of water companies, with new local powers to hold companies to account and curbs on bonuses.
• Electoral reform: New cross-party national commission, and a manifesto commitment to reform the voting system.

Our teams have now reflected on what these announcements could mean across Policy Connect’s five policy areas: Accessibility, Health, Industry, Sustainability, and Education and Skills.

Education and Skills

Burnham’s speech renewed the focus on strengthening young people’s pathways from education into work.

“In his conference speech yesterday, Burnham set out a clear new vision for the UK. But one that can only be realised through a strong and sustainable skills system: through schools, further education, higher education and alternative training routes.

While there were few new policy announcements directly related to education and skills, Burnham promised to rebuild the system of comprehensive education. He again echoed his ambition to create parity between academic and technical pathways, with Education Secretary Lucy Powell leading the way through good quality technical pathways from 14, 45-day work placements from 16-18 and apprenticeship opportunities at 18.

Burnham addressed not leaving those out of work with the lack of confidence or connection to seek opportunity and (re-)enter the job market. This speaks to the 300,000+ ‘hidden NEETs’ who have fallen through the gaps of education, employment, training and welfare, and the current lack of wrap-around support young people experience during transitional stages between the ages of 16 and 24.

He also spoke to the UK’s leading higher education sector, highlighting the pathways these offer for new startups and scale ups through their graduates. While higher education has dominated the political discourse for the past 30+ years, we feel this was an important addition. Burnham will not want greater parity of academic and technical routes to come at the cost of devaluing the UK’s higher education sector. Parity must therefore come from raising technical routes to the standard and reward of academic routes.

Policy Connect’s upcoming Higher Education and Skills Commissions’ inquiries will be exploring university connections and apprenticeships, looking to answer the questions raised by Burnham’s ambitious educational reform agenda. Many of the plans he set out yesterday will also feature heavily in the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Skills, Careers and Employment’s upcoming events programme, ranging across mayors and skills devolution, migration and skills, rural and coastal opportunities, post-16 SEND reform, LSIPs, and adult education.”

Max Bishop and Rhiannon Tuckett-Jones, Education and Skills Team

Health

Social care was a major focus of Burnham’s speech, with the proposed National Care Service forming a central part of his reform agenda.

“True to his usual style, Andy Burnham put social care and community-based reform at the heart of his first conference speech. In his speech to conference, he set out plans to establish a National Care Service, an idea he initially introduced as Health Secretary back in 2009, describing a person-centred model that would start in the home, be free at the point of use and seek to reduce pressures on the NHS by improving care outside hospital.

Burnham said the Government would begin laying the foundations for the service now, with Louise Casey’s review helping to shape its design ahead of its proposed introduction in the next Parliament. To pay for it, he set out changes to the pensions triple lock from 2030, with the savings going towards the new service.

The announcement reflects the growing recognition that health and social care cannot be reformed in isolation. As our recent First Point of Care report highlights, shifting more care into communities requires services to be properly connected, commissioned around patient need and equipped to intervene earlier, rather than relying on acute services when problems reach crisis point.

The following day, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans that point in the same direction, bringing Sure Start health services back into family centres and setting out a fair pay agreement, a national pension scheme and a workforce plan for care workers. While our Health team welcomes this step towards reform, the ambition set out by Burnham in his speech therefore raises important questions about how the National Care Service will work alongside primary and community care, and how commissioning structures, funding and workforce planning will support that shift in practice.”

Lavanya Rangarajan, Health Policy Team

Accessibility

For policy relating to disabled and neurodivergent people, the interaction between Burnham’s employment, education and care reforms will be particularly important.

“By highlighting the transition from education to the workplace and the need for a social care system that works for everyone, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s speech committed to addressing some of the biggest obstacles to a fully accessible and inclusive society for disabled people. His speech announced plans for clearer education and employment pathways from age 14, including work placements between 16 and 18 and greater parity between academic and technical routes. These are important steps in the context of the youth employment crisis highlighted in our Earning or Learning report. However, if disabled and neurodivergent young people are to benefit in practice, these opportunities must be accessible, with consistent support, reasonable adjustments and assistive technology available throughout the journey into work.

Burnham’s proposed National Care Service could work alongside these employment reforms by giving disabled people who draw on care greater choice, control and independence, helping to support the Government’s wider ambition of getting more disabled people into work. To achieve this, both systems must embed access to the technology and specialist support people need to participate fully, live independently and move into employment. Our Connect to Success report, alongside recent roundtables on SEND and DSA reform, sets out how this can be achieved across education, employment and care.”

Clive Gilbert, Accessibility Policy Team

Industry: Manufacturing

Burnham’s speech also put renewed emphasis on reindustrialising Britain’s regions and supporting manufacturing growth.

“Andy Burnham’s conference speech yesterday placed the reindustrialisation of Britain’s regions at the heart of the Government’s growth agenda. Our Manufacturing Commission’s recent reports and events have repeatedly highlighted high industrial energy costs and persistent skills shortages as major barriers to growth, particularly for manufacturing SMEs. Burnham’s proposed National Energy Plan, alongside Great British Grid and his ambition to bring UK energy costs more closely in line with neighbouring countries, therefore has the potential to address one of the sector’s most pressing structural challenges.

While his wider focus on technical education, work placements and apprenticeship routes could also help strengthen the skills pipeline manufacturers need to invest and expand. However, as our recent Small Means Essential report highlights, manufacturing SMEs face a wider set of interconnected pressures, including access to finance, business support and procurement opportunities. Important questions therefore remain around whether these measures will form part of a sufficiently joined-up, long-term industrial strategy that gives smaller manufacturers the capacity to grow.”

Robert Allen, Industry Policy Team

Industry: Technology

Burnham also placed AI at the centre of his growth agenda, with a focus on combining technological leadership with effective regulation and international cooperation.

“Drawing on Britain’s industrial past, Andy Burnham used his first conference speech as Prime Minister to argue that the UK should seek to lead the next technological revolution. He put AI at the centre of the Government’s economic ambitions and announced plans to use the UK’s G20 presidency to bring countries together around both the opportunities and risks posed by the technology. The Foreign Secretary reinforced this message, pledging that the UK will lead international efforts to manage the risks of AI and keep people safe. This is a welcome step towards pairing growth with effective regulation in AI policy. However, while global cooperation will be important, the benefits of a growing AI industry will ultimately depend on whether people and businesses across Britain have the skills and confidence to use the technology effectively.

Policy Connect’s recent work has highlighted the risk that rapid adoption moves ahead of the skills needed to use AI critically and confidently, potentially widening existing digital inequalities. Our Count on It research, for example, found that numeracy skills are currently an overlooked part of AI literacy, while Skills in the Age of AI stressed the importance of digital inclusion, workforce skills and public trust in ensuring AI adoption benefits people and businesses across the economy. The Chancellor’s new Learning Fund, with its focus on helping workers harness AI rather than be left behind by it, is a really promising start. However, its impact will depend on ensuring that those most at risk of exclusion are reached, and building numeracy and critical thinking into its offer from the outset. As the Government seeks to establish the UK as a leader in AI, ensuring people are equipped to participate in that transition will therefore be just as important as developing the technology and the regulatory frameworks that govern it.”

Lavanya Rangarajan, Industry Policy Team

Sustainability

Water reform was another major focus, with Burnham calling for stronger public control and accountability across the sector.

“Taking to the stage at his first Labour Conference as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham used water as a symbol of what he sees as the failures of privatisation. He announced a strengthened Water Bill that would repeal what he called Margaret Thatcher’s ‘ideological ban’ on public ownership of water companies, while giving mayors greater powers to hold providers to account and introducing tougher consequences for repeated failure. Burnham presented the reforms as the start of a ten-year shift towards stronger public control of the sector. Stronger regulation and clearer accountability could help create the conditions for water companies to invest more consistently in efficiency, reuse and long-term resilience.

These are priorities highlighted in Policy Connect’s latest Bricks and Water inquiry, which calls for faster action on water efficiency and the widespread adoption of reuse measures such as rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. However, the fundamental challenge of water scarcity remains. Without further action, England could face a public water supply shortfall of 5 billion litres per day by 2055, with growing implications for housing, industry and communities. The key question is therefore whether the new Water Bill will combine stronger accountability with the practical measures and investment needed to reduce demand, expand reuse and secure future water supplies. Our latest Bricks and Water report sets out ten recommendations for doing so.”

Robert Allen, Sustainability Policy Team

What comes next

Burnham’s speech set out a wide-ranging, long-term programme for reform, but important questions remain about how achievable these ambitions will be in practice. Including how these distinct yet interconnected policies will interact, how they will be funded and delivered, and whether the systems around them are equipped to support the ambitions being set.

Policy Connect will be publishing more in-depth analysis of the announcements from Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Conservative Party Conferences over the coming weeks, exploring what they mean for our current and upcoming work across Accessibility, Education and Skills, Health, Industry and Sustainability.

For more information, please contact Milly Holdstock at milly.holdstock@policyconnect.org.uk.