Andy Burnham re-elected to serve third term as Greater Manchester Mayor

Andy Burnham has been re-elected to serve a third term as Greater Manchester Mayor, following mayoral elections on Thursday 2nd May.

Mr Burnham secured 63.4% of votes, with a turnout of 32%, with the 2024 election using a new voting system that removed the option of a second preference votes. During his election campaign, he has highlighted progress made during his previous seven years in the post on improving Greater Manchester Police and work to bring the city-region’s buses back under public control through the Bee Network and stood on a People and Place led manifesto.

For his third term in office, Andy Burnham has made addressing the city-region’s housing problems a priority and speaking to BBC Breakfast on this morning (7th May) promised to make the next four years his most ambitious term yet.

He has pledged to solve the housing crisis facing Greater Manchester within the next ten years. Within the next four years, Andy Burnham has pledged to build at least 1,000 new council homes in each of the city-region’s ten boroughs. The city-region will also see the introduction of the Good Landlord Charter, based on the success of the Good Employment Charter, as well as the right for private tenants to request a property check to improve the quality of housing across Greater Manchester.

Andy Burnham has also called on Whitehall to allow Greater Manchester to pause right-to-buy on new properties. Right-to-buy gives social housing tenants the ability to purchase their home back from the local authority, which Mr Burnham says has cost the city-region 500 council homes in 2023 alone, describing the city-region’s situation as like ‘trying to fill a bath with the plug out’.

Elsewhere in the country, Labour incumbent mayors also saw re-election in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, London and the Liverpool City Region, while Conservative Ben Houchen was re-elected as Tees Valley Combined Authority Mayor. Labour Party candidates also won newly created mayor positions in the North East, East Midlands and North Yorkshire, and in the West Midlands, Labour’s Richard Parker achieved a narrow victory over Conservative incumbent Andy Street.