Labour’s 1.5 million new homes pledge ‘in tatters’, says Tory shadow minister

Labour’s manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament “lies in tatters”, Conservative shadow housing minister Paul Holmes has said.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner restated her Government’s target at the House of Commons despatch box on Monday, after her housing minister Matthew Pennycook warned its delivery “is going to be more difficult” than their party had expected while in opposition.

Mr Holmes told MPs: “In just five months we can see that this Government’s target of 1.5 million new homes lies in tatters.

“The NHF (National Housing Federation) say the Government will miss their target by 475,000 without more grant.

“The housing minister last week said the same and now Labour-run South Tyneside Council say the plans are ‘wholly unrealistic’, with other Labour councils agreeing.

“Isn’t it time that the Government admitted defeat, come back with a deliverable plan, and provide the sector with the certainty it needs to deliver more social homes across this country?”

Research by estate agent Savills in September, supported by the NHF, estimated that there will be a gap in demand of between 40,000 and 95,000 homes per year, against a target of 300,000 per year.

Mr Pennycook told the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee last month that the Government wanted to be “very candid” that “delivering 1.5 million homes is going to be more difficult than we expected in opposition”.

He said changes to national planning rules – known as the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – in 2023 had “exacerbated a fall in housing supply that had already been triggered by the present market downturn” but added his Government is “confident” it can hit its target by the end of the current Parliament.

“This Government is committed to building the 1.5 million homes over this Parliament.

“Under the Tories, housebuilding plummeted as they bowed to pressure from their backbenchers to scrap local housing targets.

“We’re bringing back mandatory housing targets.

“The Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) has put more money into the affordable homes programme and we will build those homes.

“He doesn’t know my history and how I work.”

On the green belt, Gagan Mohindra, the Conservative MP for South West Hertfordshire, said he feared the current Government’s proposed NPPF changes were “rushed” and “dangerous”.

Mr Pennycook replied: “We’re not going to concrete over the green belt.

“The Government is committed to preserving the green belt, which has served England’s towns and cities well over many decades.

“But we have to move away from the previous government’s approach to the green belt, which was to allow the land within it to regularly be released in a haphazard manner, often for speculative development that did not meet local housing need.”

Dr Luke Evans, Conservative MP for Hinckley and Bosworth, called on the Government to “strengthen” planning policies set by neighbourhood forums or town and parish councils, known as neighbourhood plans.

Mr Pennycook said: “We are leaving the protections in place on neighbourhood planning, but I’d say to him… he’s mistaken if his suggestion (is) that we are skewing development towards rural areas.

“The proposed standard method, which we consulted on, significantly boosts expectations across city regions.”