Minister warns about Labor promise to build 1.5 million new homes in UK

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Britain’s housing secretary has warned that meeting the government’s target of building 1.5 million new homes will be “tougher than expected” due to the depth of the current supply crisis.

On Wednesday, Matthew Pennycook blamed a “difficult legacy” from the last Conservative government as he told MPs the Labor government had “very real difficulties” in meeting its flagship target of building 1.5 million homes within five years.

“The delivery of 1.5 million new homes will be more difficult than we expected in the opposition” pennycook he told the House of Commons housing, communities and local government committee. “When we took office, we discovered that the situation was more dire than we expected.”

Experts and industry insiders say Labour’s planning reforms and housebuilding agenda It won’t equal 1.5 million new homes more than five years.

Although the UK has not built 300,000 homes a year since 1977, an average of closer to 200,000 per year over this period, building 1.5 million new homes is a target Sir Keir Starmer made during his general election campaign. It was an important word.

The National Housing Federation and Home Builders Federation industry group, which represents affordable housing providers, said the government was on track to miss the target by almost a third.

In July, the construction industry’s training body announced a shortage of more than 150,000 skilled staff construction workers risked breaking the commitment.

A senior Whitehall official said there was growing pressure within the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government for ministers to accept that hitting the 1.5 million homes target was unattainable in this parliament.

“Anyone can see that a serious, line-by-line analysis of how you can achieve this goal will not stand up to outside scrutiny,” the person added.

Pennycook told the housing committee he was “absolutely confident” the target was achievable and that anything less would lead to “an intense . . . housing crisis in England”.

But he opened the door to the possibility of ministers falling short, stating that ministers’ ability to meet the target was “vulnerable to things beyond the government’s control, such as economic shocks”.

Pennycook blamed “anti-supply” changes to national planning policies in the last year of the Conservative government for worsening the downturn in supply caused mainly by higher interest rates.

He also highlighted obstacles to achieving the goal, such as construction capacity, an aging workforce and planning authorities gutted by budget cuts.

“I would like to point out once again. . . “What a dire situation we are in in terms of the collapse in supply and especially affordable supply,” he said.

According to Savills, around 221,452 new homes were built in the year to the end of September; this was well below the number needed to reach 1.5 million in five years. The real estate group’s forecast is that supply will drop further next year.

The government has consulted on planning reforms that would reverse the Conservative Party’s policy changes and increase housing targets for local government.

Pennycook said on Wednesday it was also preparing other proposals that would require all local authorities to cooperate with neighboring authorities on where homes are built, possibly on a similar model to that used in London.

He said some local authorities who had been “dragging their feet” on housing were “suddenly making very, very rapid progress” to deliver local plans that would lock in old targets before the new policy came into force.

Pennycook added that the government would make an announcement within weeks on its plans to implement further rent reform.