Industry figures warn against talking the market down as a potential Burnham premiership raises landlord concerns
Keir Starmer's resignation as Labour leader has unsettled an already fragile buy-to-let market, with brokers and landlords now weighing what a potential Andy Burnham premiership could mean for private rental sector policy.
The Bank of England held base rate at 3.75% at its June meeting, and with rate cuts far from guaranteed, industry figures are urging brokers to focus on what they can control.
Starmer announced his departure following Andy Burnham's convincing victory in the Makerfield by-election on 18 June 2026, which triggered immediate calls from Labour MPs for a leadership change.
Burnham has since confirmed he will stand, with nominations opening on 9 July 2026 and a new leader expected before parliament returns in September. For the mortgage industry, the key question is what his track record on housing and the private rental sector signals for landlords.
Jeni Browne (pictured top left), sales and marketing director at Mortgage Finance Brokers, told Mortgage Introducer the instinct to sound the alarm is understandable but counterproductive. "The advice right now is don't talk the market down because it's very easy to say, ‘Oh, there's now a change of government and everything's terrible’," she said. "We don't know what Andy Burnham’s going to be like with landlords. And if you actually reference some of his previous thoughts, he wasn't exactly pro private rental sector."
What does a Burnham premiership mean for landlords?
Browne acknowledged the concern but urged perspective. With the Renters' Rights Act (RRA) having only recently come into force, she argued there could be a limit to how much political bandwidth a new prime minister will have to revisit private rental sector policy, even one with a track record of scepticism toward landlords.
"Let's not all assume it will be doom and gloom because Andy Burnham's going to have a lot to deal with," she said. "Is he going to be that bothered about landlords right now, given we've just had the Renters' Rights Act? The Labour collective have already done a significant thing in that space."
Luther Yeates (pictured top right), founder and head of mortgages at Orton Financial, offered a broader view on what a leadership change signals about the health of the economy it inherits.
"Fundamentally, my opinion is that you would never have a change of leadership if the perception was things are going well," he told Mortgage Introducer. "A change of leadership provides the opportunity to make big changes, or even reverse previous decisions without the trap of them being called a U-turn."
Yeates pointed directly to the tax and housing environment as key pressure points. "We have a high tax burden alongside a raft of changes which are very anti-landlord," he said. "People can't afford to buy homes, and landlords can't afford to keep them. They need to stop talking to the big companies and start listening to the smaller ones."
Are small businesses being ignored by policymakers?
The argument ground-level insight is being lost in policy conversations dominated by large institutions echoes a concern many brokers have raised about regulatory design.
Yeates put it plainly: "The small business owners see the day-to-day problems which need to be resolved. The CEO of a company with thousands of staff might feel like a great place to obtain market trends, but they aren't mixing with the lowest paid employees to really get a sense of what living and working in the current economy is like."
What should brokers be telling clients right now?
Against that political backdrop, Browne's message to brokers advising clients right now is pragmatic. The wider environment – she cited the Iran-US agreement, ongoing geopolitical tensions, and the prospect of a new chancellor of the exchequer – leaves rate trajectories genuinely unclear.
"There's just so much uncertainty," she said. "So at the moment, the kind of best advice for your clients is still don't wait for an interest rate cut that may not even materialise for months and months to come. Still get the rates booked in early and know that the clients can always change the rate with the same lender later, generally free of charge."
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