Now that Andy Burnham is entering Downing Street I cannot help wondering if he will follow the path of his namesake Robb Stark from the TV show Game of Thrones, called King of the North by his acolytes – a heroic, principled, strong figure, forging his own destiny. Or will he end up like his father Ned? He didn’t make it past the end of the first series – having his head surreptitiously removed by enemies due to his political naivety.

Burnham comes to the prime ministerial role with his own mandate for change and be under no illusion, the built environment sector will be one of the first places where that promise is tested in reality rather than rhetoric. Housing targets, infrastructure delivery, retrofit at scale and the journey to net zero all sit here.

Yet delivery remains constrained, not by ambition, but by friction, financial uncertainty, regulatory complexity, and institutional capacity that has not kept pace with demand.