Streeting’s Substantive Policy Spine — Wealth Tax + Sure Start + Planning Reforms
Wes Streeting has set out a policy platform combining a wealth tax to fund a return of the New Labour-era Sure Start programme, and planning reforms to fund council homes to prevent children growing up in temporary accommodation. The Streeting platform now competes substantively with Burnham’s constitutional-reform-plus-NHS positioning for the same Tribune-Group-adjacent soft-left base. Streeting told reporters on Friday he had “the numbers including ministers” to launch a leadership bid against Sir Keir Starmer but held off “to give Andy Burnham the chance” to fight the Makerfield by-election.
Streeting also suggested making the independent Planning Inspectorate more involved in approving new housing and easing some of the thresholds at which housing developers must carry out an environmental assessment of their proposals. The combination of wealth tax + restored Sure Start + planning-driven council homes is the social-democratic spine of the Streeting offer. It is to the left of the 2024 Starmer-Reeves prospectus on tax but to the right on planning. Burnham, by contrast, has paired Streeting’s wealth-tax openness with proportional representation in the next manifesto, council tax reform, rail renationalisation, more council houses, and the inheritance-tax-to-care-levy switch. The two candidates are now publicly cross-endorsing each other for the by-election while drawing different policy lines.