Starmer’s make or break speech sets out vision for ‘Britain built for all’
Billed by some as the last chance to prove his prime ministerial chops and articulate a clear vision for the country, Keir Starmer’s speech presented a choice between renewal with Labour and decline with Reform.
That the next general election is years away did not stop the Prime Minister using his keynote address at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool to repeatedly attack Reform UK, which is leading in the polls, and paint himself and his Labour party as patriots.
He accused Nigel Farage of not loving Britain and said the path set out by Reform would lead to “ruin and chaos”.
There was little of note in Starmer’s keynote speech to get the property and development industry excited. Mention of the government’s 1.5m homes target was conspicuous by its absence while talk of infrastructure improvements was also thin on the ground.
The big announcement for property came days ago when the 12 new town locations were unveiled and housing secretary implored the sector to “build, baby, build”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s speech at Labour Party conference was his best one yet, according to Bury Council Leader Cllr Eamonn O’Brien. @eamonnobrien.bsky.social #labourparty
— Julia Hatmaker (@juliahatmaker.bsky.social) 30 September 2025 at 15:48
One person who will be keen to get a read on the parliamentary Labour Party’s reaction to the speech is Andy Burnham.
While many of his mayoral colleagues, including Steve Rotheram and Oliver Coppard, were in the room as Starmer took to the stage, Burnham appeared to not be.
In recent weeks he has emerged as the favourite to replace Starmer as leader of the party and has avoided opportunities to shut down talk of a move back to Whitehall.
With the spectre of Burnham proving hard to shake, Starmer doubled down on messaging that has defined his premiership to date. Promises to “smash the gangs” to tackle illegal migration, and “beat the blockers” who stand in the way of national renewal were wheeled out, while the Prime Minister also highlighted what Britain has going for it in the arenas of tech and clean energy.
“Is that broken Britain?” he repeatedly asked.
Liverpool City Council Leader Cllr Liam Robinson’s verdict on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party conference speech? “It was very passionate, invigorating – based on principles as well.” @liam-robinson.bsky.social #labourparty
— Julia Hatmaker (@juliahatmaker.bsky.social) 30 September 2025 at 15:54
Plans to eradicate child poverty, boost apprenticeships, modernise the NHS, and “put more cash” in people’s pockets all form part of Starmer’s vision for a “Britain built for all”, he said in front of a packed auditorium in Liverpool.
The coming hours and days will provide more clarity on how well Starmer’s speech was received but the real indication will come during next year’s local elections when Labour goes head-to-head with Reform.
Only then will it will be known if the speech cut through to the masses.
Industry reaction
While Starmer may not have spent many words on his building programme during his conference speech, the entirety of the conference had provided plenty for those working in property and policy think tanks to chew on. In particular, several opted to reflect on the government’s repeated dedication to its 1.5m new homes by 2029 goal, its announcement of the new towns shortlist, and its Pride in Place programme.
Tim Heatley, co-founder of Capital&Centric
“I had to dash off from the conference back to Manchester, but I listened to Keir Starmer close the party conference in the car. It was the kind of speech that makes regeneration junkies like me sit up straighter in the car. At last, a Prime Minister who seems to get that bricks and mortar are not just about GDP, but about dignity.
“Yet as any developer knows, announcing new towns is the easy bit. It is the equivalent of me promising my kids a Disneyland trip. It gets a cheer in the short term, but the real graft comes when you are standing in the EasyJet queue at four in the morning, three croissants down and wondering if you have packed enough paracetamol.
“Starmer’s ‘Pride in Place’ programme, with its £5bn to restore high streets and public spaces, is a neat political soundbite. Communities seizing boarded-up shops, local people blocking vape shops, more say over what fills our town squares. It is all deliciously populist. And frankly, if it gives people the power to tell their council ‘no, we do not need another nail bar, thank you very much’, then I am all for it.
“But here is the rub: town centres are not a game of Monopoly. You cannot just shuffle businesses about until you land on Mayfair. Regeneration is messier, longer, and if you are doing it right, full of risk. I have seen more high street “silver bullets” than I have had flat whites. Enterprise zones, town deal boards, community improvement districts. Acronyms promising salvation but often amounting to bunting and a Costa.
“What made me smile, though, was Starmer’s insistence that the era of “blockers” is over. I have been that guy, sat in a planning committee, listening to people argue about whether a proposed red brick looks too orange. If Labour can genuinely sweep aside that culture of inertia, then yes, maybe we will see those new towns rise before my kids finish their GCSEs.
“Twelve new towns, each with 10,000 homes and the promise of 40 per cent affordable. It is bold, it is ambitious, it is a headline tailor-made for a front page. But the history of British new towns is littered with cautionary tales. Milton Keynes worked because it had a vision beyond housing: jobs, transport, a culture of design. Others? Well, let us just say no one writes coffee-table books about Redditch.
“The challenge now is credibility. People do not want another glossy masterplan. They want homes they can actually afford, in places where buses still turn up and schools are not bursting at the seams. Social housing that does not feel like the bottom rung, but like part of a wider, mixed community. That is where this government has to deliver.
“And here is where I will give Starmer credit: he did not just talk about homes as units or assets, but as communities. The rhetoric about local pride, about putting control in the hands of the people who live there, is bang on. Too often, developers like me are cast as Bond villains in hard hats, swooping in, raising rents, ruining skylines. The truth is, regeneration only sticks when it is done with communities, not to them.
“Of course, the cynic in me could not help but notice how carefully the speech was threaded with easy applause lines. A war on boarded-up shops here, a swipe at dodgy landlords there. It was regeneration dressed for prime time, more Saturday night TV than spreadsheet. But maybe that is what the moment requires. A vision broad enough to get people nodding along, even if the devil in the detail is still on furlough.
“As a social impact developer, I want to believe him. I want to believe that this government will finally break the cycle of announcements without cranes, of initiatives without impact. Because if Starmer is serious, then developers like me have a role to play: investing in brownfield land, backing quirky projects, proving that towns can be vibrant again without another identikit retail park.
“So yes, I will allow myself a bit of optimism. But until I see diggers on site, planners saying ‘yes’ instead of ‘we will consult again in 18 months’, and families moving into genuinely affordable homes, I will keep a little of my scepticism in the glovebox.
“Starmer wants to build 12 new towns. Good. Let us hope they are places worth living in, not just political monuments. Because if the next decade is about anything, it is about proving that Britain can still build, not just homes, but hope.”
Sue Jarvis, co-director of the Heseltine Institute for Policy, Practice and Place at the University of Liverpool
“It was good to hear the Prime Minister reiterate the government’s commitment to spread prosperity across the whole of the country, not just London and the South East.
“Much of the energy at this year’s conference has been created by elected Labour mayors, setting out their plans for attracting investment, creating local growth and developing infrastructure. Just over a decade on from the creation of the first combined authorities, we’re now seeing these organisations reach new levels of institutional capacity and maturity. Mayors such as Steve Rotheram in Liverpool City Region have set out compelling visions for how England’s cities and city-regions can contribute to the government’s growth mission.
“We heard strong support from ministers throughout the conference for going further with devolution and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill now working its way through Parliament represents the first step in the next phase of this journey towards greater local and regional autonomy.”
Anthony Breach, director of policy and research at Centre for Cities
“We’ve seen again this Labour conference that growth across the country and planning reform are top political priorities for this government, aligning with the consensus among economists and leading international organisations such as the IMF.
“The government will need to take bold action to remove the barriers urban development is facing and deliver on its wider agenda, but the potential and issues facing cities, devolution, and housebuilding were all being heard at Labour conference from a broad range of voices across business and politics.”
