Some policies passed:

On housing (in the Unite ‘reindustrialising our communities’ composite):

• ending right to buy, 
• cancelling council housing debt, freeing resources for building and maintenance”
• 90 000 annual target for building or acquiring social rent homes
• “direct employment” (ie DLOs).  

On ‘Insourcing and Public Ownership’:

• bringing rail freight “back in-house by expanding publicly owned rail freight”
• ensuring all workers moving into GBR are covered by collective bargaining agreements, 
• to insource all Network Rail train operations

On ‘public services’:

• defence of migrant workers and leave to remain
• rejection of forced academisation as “a failed education policy”

On ‘Rebuilding our Economy for Working People’

• “single status of worker” (a key point missing from the ERA)
• “introduction of a wealth tax”

In an emergency motion referring to the threat of ‘fire and rehire’ at Glasgow City Council:

• “deliver the New Deal for Working People in full, without further dilution or delay, and finally end the scandal of fire and rehire”.

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Composite Motion 8 – Reindustrialising our Communities

Whilst we do not agree with the emphasis here on things like “prioritising British-based providers” (building international trades unionism would be more meaningful), it is worth posting the GMB-Unite motion in full for its housing references in particular:

Mover: GMB

Seconder: Unite

Conference welcomes the new Prime Minister’s commitment that public spending must back British jobs and skills in every postcode.

Conference further welcomes the Government announcement of 5th August 2026 that businesses bidding for Government contracts will be judged on their commitment to creating high-quality British jobs, tackling local skills shortages, and supporting young people into apprenticeships and work placements.

Conference believes investment should drive reindustrialisation, support British manufacturing and create unionised jobs.

Britain’s housing crisis is a national emergency. Too many homes are poorly insulated; freezing in winter, overheating in summer. Nearly all our 29 million homes need improvement.

Clearing social housing waiting lists at the current rate would take over a century, whilst housing costs drive poverty and leave young people living longer with parents.

Conference believes public investment in building and retrofitting homes can tackle this crisis, strengthen domestic supply chains, support British manufacturing, create good, unionised jobs, rebuild Britain’s industrial base and deliver economic growth.

Labour’s Modern Industrial Strategy highlights the importance of foundational industries like steel and the Government’s Steel Strategy recognises its role as the backbone of Britain’s reindustrialisation, underpinning growth-driving sectors from advanced manufacturing and clean energy to defence and digital technologies, while supporting steel communities across the country.

Conference further notes the commitments made in Labour’s 2024 manifesto to align procurement and trade policy with the priorities of the Modern Industrial Strategy.

Conference notes public procurement accounts for £90 billion of economic value in the UK every year, representing a significant opportunity to support growth and create jobs.

Conference believes labour’s investment in defence, energy, housing and infrastructure provides a historic opportunity to rebuild Britain’s industrial capacity, create thousands of good, unionised jobs and drive good growth in every postcode.

However, recent procurement decisions again demonstrate that public investment is not always benefiting UK workers, skills and supply chains. Strategically important contracts continue to be awarded overseas while UK shipyards, steelworks, manufacturers and supply chains with the skills and capacity to undertake the work are left without orders.

Too often public money has been wasted on importing carbon-intensive steel from abroad rather than strengthening the industry at home. This mistake has cost thousands of jobs through de-industrialisation in communities that need them most, and it has exacerbated our reliance on strategic rivals for key inputs to our defence industrial base, energy sector and critical infrastructure.

Apparent savings from overseas procurement are a false economy when employment, skills, tax revenues, resilient supply chains and domestic industrial capability are ignored. While Labour has initiated positive reforms to public procurement, these must go further and deeper if we are to reindustrialise our steel communities using the long-term demand signals that Government investment can provide.

Conference believes procurement must be an active instrument of Labour’s industrial strategy. Government investment must carry clear expectations that companies benefiting from public money provide good-quality employment, recognise trade unions, invest in skills and maximise UK supply-chain opportunities.

Conference resolves to campaign for:

• A large-scale council housebuilding programme, with guaranteed funding to build or acquire at least 90,000 social rent homes each year, using direct employment.
• A publicly funded national retrofitting programme to upgrade homes, learning from the UK’s ECO4 issues to create good jobs and upskill workers across the construction and retrofit sectors, under the relevant National Working Rule Agreements.
• Procurement prioritising British-based providers, supporting domestic manufacturing, good jobs and unionised supply chains, maximising public investment benefits.
• Increasing bona fide apprenticeships and deliver new training facilities.
• Ending Right to Buy and cancelling council housing debt, freeing resources for building and maintenance.
• Greater tenant rights, stronger regulation, secure tenancies, social rents and caps on service charges and above-inflation rent rises.
• Conference calls on the Labour Government to urgently:
• Drive Britain’s reindustrialisation by meeting the ambitions of the Steel Strategy as soon as possible;
• Increase domestic steel procurement in public investment, including in the construction of housing, energy infrastructure and railways; and
• Expand public procurement requirements to cover state-funded projects that do not fall under the public procurement regime.
• Bring forward a new procurement bill to strengthen procurement policy and ensure that public contracts promote trade union access, recognition and collective bargaining alongside domestic industrial capacity, employment and
• skills;
• Maximise UK content and supply-chain opportunities in publicly funded energy, defence, housing and infrastructure projects.
• Remove legislative and regulatory barriers preventing public procurement being used strategically to support British industry and unionised jobs.