It is fair to say that the replacement of Sir Keir Starmer by former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has sparked hope among some for a regeneration renaissance. “When Burnham became PM, there was a bit of a smile from those of us in the regeneration and placemaking space,” says Simon Marks, partner and city executive at consultant Arcadis. “A sense of, ‘that’s really interesting’.”

Burnham has, after all, come to power promising “growth in every postcode” – a veiled commitment to the renewal of left-behind places.

But Marks is not expressing a political preference. Rather, an enthusiasm about the prospect of the Manchester experience informing national policymaking.

“He [Burnham] really understands how important place is,” Marks says. “And he also understands the impact of local empowerment and local decision-making.”

And Burnham has wasted little time in getting to work on his agenda, proposing new powers for elected mayors, including over planning, setting up an arm of government based out of Manchester to oversee devolution, and allocating £10bn of spending for  affordable housing.

However, no one expects the Burnham vibes to suddenly solve long-standing problems. And many in the sector are concerned by what they see as the Burnham team’s overly ideological focus on council housing. Likewise, there are fears that a lack of capacity in local government, allied to political gridlock in our age of multi-party politics, means that the promised devolution could struggle to deliver benefits.

As Building prepares to draw together eight months of work on its flagship Regen Connect campaign at the Building the Future Conference on 7 October, here it asks those on its advisory board and other industry experts to identify the opportunities and threats from the shifting political landscape under the new prime minister.

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