Rachel Reeves today announced the introduction of mandatory housing targets and an end to the onshore wind ban to get “Britain building again”.
The UK’s first ever female Chancellor said Labour will create a new taskforce ‘to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country’.
She promised her government would build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, as pledged in Labour’s election manifesto.
1.5 million new homes“We’re not in the business of reneging on our manifesto commitments,” she said in her first speech as Chancellor after Labour won the general election last Thursday.
“We’ve received that strong mandate. We’re going to deliver on that mandate.”
The Conservatives brought in mandatory housing targets in 2019, which were based on forecasts of the number of households expected in each area.
Local authorities in England then had to ensure that many homes would be delivered, but these targets were abandoned when Rishi Sunak became prime minister in 2022.
In 2023, a committee of MPs criticised, external the dropping of mandatory housing targets, saying it was difficult to see how 300,000 homes per year could be achieved without them.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Richard Pike, PheobusRichard Pike, chief sales and marketing officer at Phoebus Software, says: “Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ announcement today leaves some questions unanswered. Planning issues, coupled with the manpower to actually build the houses is going to be a real challenge for Labour.
“Chancellor Reeves said that Labour will bring back compulsory housebuilding targets for councils, and yet Gove couldn’t make mandatory targets work and had to pull them.
“Reeves maintains that it will still be local authorities who make the call on what gets built and where, so will it really be any different for councils who don’t want to build and use the planning system to stop construction?
“Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes – an average of 300,000 per year – over the course of the same parliament. This was also the Tories target – one they failed to meet every year, with 232,800 homes delivered last year.
“We can be hopeful, though, that the 300 new planning officers Labour has said they will fund, as well as a fresh approach to brown and ‘grey belt’ sites will help. It would also be a great thing if Chancellor Reeve’s pitch to investors today attracts significant investment in green industry and housebuilding. This will help kickstart the property market and the UK economy.”
