Andy Burnham has an epic task ahead of him. He needs to come out swinging

Odysseus knew it. So does Peter Parker. And anyone that’s belted out Three Lions recently. It’s all about coming home.

Homer’s epic The Odyssey charts the 10-year trip from Troy, situated in modern-day Türkiye, to the Greek island of Ithaca, via a few detours. It’s the archetype of western storytelling tradition. All the tales we tell, if you boil them down to their essence, have at their heart a search for home; a failure to make it home if it’s a tragedy.

Home can be literal: the island where your beloved Penelope awaits. Or it represents a state of equilibrium – stability, security and belonging – that has to be restored before you can enjoy your happily ever after.

Millennia after Odysseus’s fantastic voyage, the amazing Spider-Man is on a similar journey. The first film headlined by Tom Holland – also currently appearing in Christopher Nolan’s take on The Odyssey – was subtitled Homecoming. Its sequel was Far From Home.

The latest film, out this week and partly filmed just down the road from where I’m typing this in Glasgow (close enough for our sub-editor, Alan, to grab a Spidey selfie one lunchbreak) is called Brand New Day. Things were going too smoothly for Peter Parker/Spider-Man. He’d saved the world a couple of times and found his true love. Too settled by superhero standards.

Time for a reset, with everyone’s memory wiped by some maddening multiverse MacGuffin so the stakes can rise again.

Read more:

• ‘Who’s your favourite Spider-Man?’: Why the future of Spidey looks thwipping exciting
• Andy Burnham: ‘Housing is a human right’
• Housing First: What can Finland teach us about tackling homelessness?

The quest for a safe, secure home is the driving narrative in real-life too. You might have challenges to overcome and supervillains to battle but doing so from a place you can call home is a huge advantage. On the other hand, if your housing situation isn’t certain, small problems can quickly spiral and cause far-reaching repercussions.

Andy Burnham has positioned himself as friendly neighbourhood prime minister, with a focus on devolution, devolution, devolution to reinvigorate local communities. If he’s serious about that he needs to prioritise housing. As he moves into his own new official address, there are a few steps he could take now to help those caught in the sticky web of the housing crisis. 

Firstly – obviously – build more houses. His predecessor set ambitious plans to construct 1.5 million new homes in five years. We’re not there yet but there’s progress to keep building on. Bring empty homes back into use; more than 309,000 in England have stood vacant for more than six months. Establish a homelessness and rough sleepers taskforce with a main aim in preventing people becoming homeless in the first place. And extend Housing First programmes.

He’s done it before. Housing First has been a success in Greater Manchester. And now a position that holds greater power brings greater responsibility to deliver on a national scale.

Odysseus spent a decade trying to find his way home. Keir Starmer hoped he’d have that long, with his plans based around serving two terms. But it only took two years before he was dashed upon the rocks with nary a Siren in sight, so Burnham would be best to come out swinging.

Steven MacKenzie is Editor of Big Issue. Read more of his writing here. 

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