There’s a strange thing happening in British politics right now.

We have one Prime Minister in Downing Street, and another waiting in Manchester.

Keir Starmer holds the title. Andy Burnham holds the room.

And Burnham has just made his opening play: the biggest council house building programme since the post-war era. Bigger than anything attempted in most of our lifetimes.

It sounds like exactly what Britain needs. Millions of people are locked out of home ownership, rents are through the roof, and the housing crisis touches everything from the NHS to the welfare bill.

But think about it for a minute and the questions start piling up.

Who pays for it?

Burnham says he’ll stick to the fiscal rules, yet post-war-scale building has only ever been funded with serious borrowing.

Where do the workers come from when the industry is already short hundreds of thousands of skilled tradespeople? More immigration probably isn’t the answer right now.

And what happens to house prices when the state starts flooding the market with homes?

That last question is the one Nick Hubble and I really get stuck into in our latest video.

Because there’s a darker side to Burnham’s grand plan.

Falling property values. Inheritance tax grabs. Landlords selling up. And a government that doesn’t seem in any hurry to stop house prices sliding.

What if the property market isn’t weakening by accident?

What if wealth held in bricks and mortar is being taxed and squeezed until nobody wants to own it anymore?

If that’s right, the property ladder may no longer be Britain’s default wealth-building machine.

And that has enormous implications for where your money should go instead.

We talk housebuilders, infrastructure, and why the stock market could become the last great wealth-building machine standing.

Watch the full conversation here:


Sam Volkering
Investment Director, Southbank Investment Research

PS In just five days, we’ll answer the question every investor should be asking: If property isn’t the automatic answer anymore, where should your next £10,000 go instead? We’ll share the specific stocks on our radar live on 9 July at 3 pm GMT. Secure your spot here.